


Zimvoid

by Chaoflaka



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: AU, Adventure, Comedy, Comic, Friendship, Multiverse, Other, Zimvoid, battlevoid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 51,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22517581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaoflaka/pseuds/Chaoflaka
Summary: Two people, each in their own alternate universe and are both the same Irken named “Zim”, respond to an Irken distress signal that leads them to travel into a vortex located on one of Earth’s ocean. This causes them to be trapped in a planet filled with their thousand alternate selves called the Zimvoid.Given the world providing no major equipments, along with their Girs destroyed, and the Zimvoid having a hierarchical society, no Zim can figure out how the Zimvoid came to be and how to get back home.As a result, when two Zims end up bumping into each other, they decide to partner up in a resistance group, attempt to recruit more Zims and take down the leader of the Zimvoid in order to find the source of its origin and find a way to get back home.Based entirely  on the Invader Zim comic arc “Battlevoid” (Issue 46-49)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 24





	1. Prologue

Green light. It was the very first thing to see in a small rocky-like and almost lifeless planet. A planet that appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Just clusters of stars in the distance and a small sun. But despite there being a sun, it barely peeks by the horizon. In fact daytime appear for several hours in a dawn-like view before dipping back down to let the sky go black again, the moon being the most noticeable. The green light is the main thing that lights up the planet, revealing piles of broken ships surrounding it along with scraps scattered about. The light turns out to be a device. A massive device towering over high to be seen from the other side of the planet. It had complex structures with the tip looking like a fist pointing up at the stars.

At a small distance, soft clattering sounds are heard getting louder and louder. The clattering reveal to be footsteps, created by small beings wearing armors that make them look like bug people. They are shown to be carrying about spear-like weapons with their body barely exposed except for their pinkish beady eyes. The clatters slowed and soften once they reached the area. When they made a halt, they made sure to keep a safe distance from the cluttered crashed ships. They all looked up at the vortexes spinning about from the sky. Several to be exact. They can be easily seen thanks to to the strange bright device. No figures moved except for one, who walked up to be in the front of the group. The leader’s one eye squinted at the view of the vortexes until something caught his interest.

“This vortex looks active today,” he pointed at the one that was swirling the strongest with Lightnings surging underneath the swirling clouds. The thunder however had a gentle sound, only making soft rumbling noises. The leader lowered their finger,

“It looks like we got another one coming for sure.”

One of the bug looking people sat down on a boulder sighing.

“Do we really have to wait? What if it’s just another false alarm?”

“Don’t be lazy now, 680!”The leader glared at the one sitting, “we have an important job to do that doesn’t revolve around monitoring others! If one of them arrives

and end up getting away, our ranking would be at risk!”

The leader looked back up at the active vortex.

“We got to be ready for when another newbie arrives.”

680 sighs,

“The next one better not be as humiliating as the last two.”

Another guard went over and poked at the leader.

“Hey, 501? Is uh....it alright if I patrol the area? Make sure there aren’t any rejects wandering about?”

The leader thought about it. He sighed.

“Fine. But make sure you stay close by.”

The big person dipped their head.

“Good! Will do.”

They started to walk away while 680 looked at the bug person, the shape of their eye forming a irritated expression.

“How come he’s able to walk about and not me-?”

“Hold on!”

The armored creature stopped what they were doing and both of them looked at their leader.

“What is it, 501?”

But he didn’t say anything else. Instead fell silent. By that notion, they looked up at the active vortex and listened. And what they began to hear was a whirring sound. And it was starting to get louder. They right away began to recognize the sound with 680 standing up and the other one, who was going to go for a look out, turned back. They each sided with their leader and continued looking at the vortex.

“You think we got company?”

The whirring sound kept sounding more clear with 501 looking on. His eye squinted in pleasure and gripped his spear.

“Oh yeah. We got company.”

The sound now became loud enough to echo the area. And just when it did, a small ship dashed right out of the active vortex. It was dashing so fast due to how much the vortex has quickened its speed that there was no way the driver within the ship can turn in time. And for that, it bombarded against the device and green electricity surged violently across the small ship enough for the engine to make a blow out. It floated in mid air, the engine making last few coughs before it started spiraling downward. The viewers were already aware at this point that the ship was completely destroyed after a zap like that. The ship spew out smoky trail as it slightly glided down. It finally hit the ground, causing it to bounce upwards with parts flying out of it.

It hits the ground again, flying upwards again but this time in a lower altitude. It makes one last crash to the ground and skidded across the ground with more parts being left behind (some even being softly lit up in flames). The ship then collided with the other broken ships, causing it to go into an extreme halt before finally fully resting. It was now a complete mess and looked to be unfixable, smoke continuing to spew out of the back of the cruiser. The people waited a little longer. 501 gestures to the guys behind.

“Let’s go see what we got this time.”

They both nodded, letting the 501 take the lead and start heading over to the newly crashed ship.

————————-

The ship’s driver can feel the consciousness return to him. His body feels badly sore as if he was tossed all about. But other than that, the first thing that came to his mind was that he was still alive. He grunted, trying his best to ignore the strongly aching pain and finally opening his eyes, seeing himself underwater within a glass. His vision looks wavy because of this. But it’s not like it was brand new. In fact, this how he now always sees the world. He took notice on thevery first thing he saw:

He was in his damaged ship, with his eyes looking out to see a bright device towering over him. There were stars at the night sky, glittering about, while some clouds would move about to cover it. He blinked at the sight, but tried to ignore it. He needed to get out of the ship. He let out a painful grunt as he started to sit up. He felt a little shaky, but kept using all his strengths to get out. In a good way, he can feel his body get stronger the more he used it. He pushed open the broken glasses and cracked his back with a short groan when stretching out his body. He sighed and then was finally able to pull himself out.

He looked at the ship,

“Computer,” he said to it, “see if you can scan the area.”

There were glitchy sounds that lasted a while as he waited for it to respond.

**“Zzzz-nnnzzzt. Y-y-y-yesssszzzz....”**

He tapped his foot and looked at the ship impatiently.

“Oh come on now. You can’t be that bro-“

Suddenly, the ships surrounding him were brought to life just a bit for him to flinch when they responded with the same voice as his own.

**“Yezzzzziirrr-“**

**“Yezzzsurrrrs-s-s-“**

**“-Skannnnnn-“**

**“Skanzzzzzninnnn-“**

One of them even did so as well, but with a squeakier tone, until they all shut off at the same time. His eyes traced at all of them, now feeling uncomfortable at what he just witnessed,

“....ken?”

It took him a several seconds to try and digest before looking about his surroundings. It was then he realized there is something off with the ships.

“Uh....why do the ships look a lot like mine?”

He looked back at his own ship.

“Computer, scan the ships.”

But there was this time dead silence.

“Computer....computer!”

He knocked few times on the ship like it was some sort of door, but no response. He looked at it for a short while. He took out a floating communication device from his irken PAK and spoke to it,

“Computer!”

But there was no response except static sounds. He sighs and puts it back in his PAK.

“Great. Lost signal. Looks like I’m gonna have to use some junks around here in order to fix the ship...if there’s anything useful here.”

He suddenly remembered something and thought about it.

“Speaking of ‘junk’....”

He looked about almost frantically, but also remained a calm attitude.

“Gir!”

There was no answer.

“Gir! Get out here!”

Still no answer.

He sighs in frustration,

“That’s stupid little...Gir!”

He started walking about as he continued to call out for the one he’s looking for.

Meanwhile, few of those bug people can be seen hiding behind some of the crashed ships as they peeked out to look at the newcomer. 501 took a look at him for a short while, and then turned to the other strange bug creature. He nodded at them. They nodded in response and looked at the newcomer. They went out from their hiding place and started to creep close to the stranger.

“Gir! Are you nearby?! Gir! G-“

The stranger that reveals to have fins on the side of his head perked up, causing him to stop making a sound and froze in place.

The person that was creeping up on him made a complete halt as well, hoping that he would just think he overheard it and let it go. The leader squinted, paying close attention to whatever the newcomer may do. The newcomer hesitated. He turns behind him.

“NOW!” 501 shouts out.

The newcomer harshly flinches when he sees three bug-like people start charging towards him. He turns and starts trying to run off. But the first two launched unto him, making him let out a panicky yelp, before tackling him down on the ground. They completely pinned him down, making sure he doesn’t try to break free. He was shown to be growling and shouting as an act of defense until he began to give out and pant in complete exhaustion.

The guards were finally able to take a good look at him. One of them sighed and said,

“Ugh! See, 501? I told you that the next one would be humiliating!”

“Let me see for myself,” he replied, walking up to them and taking a good look at the one who entered their world.

The one they were holding down out turns out to be an Irken. But it wasn’t any other regular Irken. In fact, this Irken appears to be a mixture of a Irken AND a fish. Although it is uncertain what type of fish he really is, there’s no doubt he requires water in order to live with the way he is wearing a scuba diver suit, with a round head tank that’s completely filled with water. There was also a tube that attached to the back of the tank and his PAK, though it’s hard to tell what it’s true purpose is.

“Hmm,” he said in interest, watching the hybrid look up at him with a mixture of frustration, confusion, and fear.

“I do agree with you, 680. He is indeed one of the most humiliating one we ever found.”

———————————

The newcomer kept on showing to be struggling and baring his huge sharp teeth in order to try and scare the people who captured him. But that didn’t do him any good as they dragged him over to a chamber. There were few other bug-looking people there working in the chamber until they stopped what they were doing and looked to see who they brought in.

“Nnngh-ah! Agh!Let go of me! Please let go of me-!”

“‘Please?’ One of them snorted, “did I just hear him say ‘please’?”

“-Don't you even know who you’re messing with here? Please get off me!”

“Calm down fishy,” 501 said as they pinned him on a metallic table and started strapping him against, “we just need to get you set up first and you’re good to go.”

“Stop calling me ‘fishy’!”

But they ignored him as the leader turned to one of them saying,

“You. Collar.”

“Yes, sir!” The person dipped his head and left the room for a moment while 501 went over to a lever to tilt the table for everybody to get a good look at the prisoner, who was still shown to be struggling.

One of them walked up sounding unamused.

“Another fish hybrid? And he requires water? How embarrassing.”

The prisoner immediately stopped struggling when he heard that comment.

“Yeah,” the other one said, “and what’s with that outfit? What is he, a pathetic human scuba diver?”

“He looks soft,” another bug person said, “really soft.”

“Oh you should have seen him!” 501 laughed as he turns to the group, “right as we were sneaking up to him, he actually started calling out for his Gir.”

“Wait what?”

“Pfff-reallly?!” One of them snorted, causing all them to laugh along with him.

The prisoner gazed at all of them. He blinked into confusion.

“‘My Gir?’”

“Oohhh my Gir,” the leader suddenly imitated the prisoner in a very dramatic tone, “my poor poor Gir, where have you gone?!”

The gangs howled in laughter for a while longer. The newcomer just remained confused until another voice was heard.

“Hey 501!” The guard that left for a moment came back and showed something he was carrying, “you think this is the right size for him?”

The leader’s laughter softened so he can take a look at it. The prisoner also turned to see what that guard was carrying. It appears to look like a metallic and purplish looking collar with a lock hole and four orange tiles that contain four digit numbers, all of them being 0 digits.

Whatever it was though, he started to feel very unsettled about it.

“Uhhhh yeah,” the leader answered, “should be good. Someone hold his arms in case he tries something pathetic. I’ll hold his uh....head...tank.”

Two guards went ahead and pinned his arms down. While the leader went and ahead and made sure he doesn’t move his head. As a response, the prisoner starts struggling again,

“Nnngh! What is that that thing?!”

“Relax,” 501 said, “it won’t hurt you. Just hold still.”

The one holding the collar first looked at a paper that appears to be a list. He found something and uses a marker to check it off. He then walked over to the prisoner in order to put the collar around his neck and close it tightly. The prisoner watches as the guard then pulls out a strange looking key and plug it onto the lock hole. He turns it, making the four digits start changing in a fast rate with all random numbers. The twisting of the key slows, along with the changing of the digits, until it came to a complete halt. What remains were the following fours digits:

**||2-0-0-2||**

The guard pulls the key out and gives the collar a good tug.

“Alright, 501. The collar is locked tight. He’s good to go.”

“Perfect,” he responded in satisfaction and lets go of the prisoner, who is seen analyzing his new collar, “you should be ready for your first job, 2002.”

His analyzation was cut off. He turned to his eyes to the leader.

“2002?”

“Yup! That will be your name for now on.”

“New name?” He looked extremely confused and dazed for a moment.

He shook his head and halted them,

“W-Wait wait wait wait wait, you cannot just change my name like that! Do you know who I am?! I am-“

“Zim,” the leader responded, “We know, 2002.”

“Exactly!” He narrowed, “so what makes you think you would give Zim such a ridiculous-wait.”

His anger soften and pointed out,

“How do you know my name? I-I mean I know I’m uh, great and all. But still.”

The guards all gazed at him. One guard went up to 501.

“Oh! Is it time we reveal it? Come on come on come on, I wanna see what face this one might make!”

501 glanced at him. He chuckled.

“Very well then. I guess we hid it a little too long now.”

“Yes...!” He squealed a bit in excitement.

“Alright,” he faces back to 2002, “let’s show him who we really are.”

He grew more confused, but decided to watch as the gangs all grabbed their helmet and took it off.

2002 gazed at the gangs and it took him a while to digest what he was really seeing. But as soon as it started to click him, his face went blank. Standing in front of him were creatures that looked.....just like him? Well....not exactly like him. But they look extremely close. All of them were. It was almost as if they were all his identical brothers. Except they were not irken-fish hybrids like him, but instead normal irkens. Two of them had a single eye with a patch located where their second eye could have been. The third one had a scar across his eye and the fourth had a white mustache. They were like himself but all of them having parts of them that are different.

And they all had collars, just like the one they gave him. But they all came in different digits:

0-5-0-1, 0-6-8-0 and so on.

“W.....w-wait....” he softly stammered, “I’m con....w...what are you?”

501, who is the one with the black eyepatch walked closer to him.

“You are not the only one who is Zim, 2002. I am Zim. He is Zim. We are all Zim.”

At this point, the prisoner didn’t know what to say. If anything he feels more lost and confused than ever before. And maybe even stunned and loss for words. 501 noticed this and he let out a pesky smirk.

“Welcome to the Zimvoid.”


	2. Issue 1

There were two light with one of them on and flashing red. A beeping sound was heard the moment the red light turned off and the other light turned on with a green color. Next to it was a huge metallic door that gently open to reveal the Zim guards in there. 501 was leading with the other guards behind the newcomer. He twitched his antenna as a signal to continue walking, which they did so. The newcomer could do nothing but walk along, his eyes stuck on the ground expressionless. He did however glance about for a short while to take a look at his new surroundings. Indeed it looked like he entered a prison. Somewhere as familiar as Mooping 10, one of the greatest prison to exist. But this one seems a bit more worn out. More people that look like him can be seen doing their business.

A dragonfly-like Zim can be seen trying to change a lightbulb. He got electrocuted and fell on the ground. Few seconds later, he woke up, shook the pain off, and continued his duty. A pig-like Zim was seen playing with one of the buttons and glanced at a cell, watching it automatically swing open. In response, he looked down at a paper he was carrying and wrote it down. When finished, he went inside the cell to relax. It didn’t take long for another guard to notice and storm inside the cell. The pig let out a squeal as he was dragged out of the cell. Throwing him down, the guard angrily shouts about something towards him. The pig frowned. But he got up and continued doing his duty.

The fish irken softly frowned in confusion.

“Heh!” One guard behind him smirked, “at least this one seems well behaved. Heck! He hasn’t even spoke since we revealed our identity to him!”

“I think it’s not only that,” 501 looked at them, “if anything, this is the quietest one we ever gotten. Tell me, 2002. What makes you quiet?”

2002 awkwardly gaze at him without a response.

“Too personal to answer, huh?” His eyebrow raised, “that’s fine,”he turned his face away, “all Zims who are quiet do so for personal reasons.”

The fish was taken back a bit by that comment and narrowed,

“N-no!”

501 looked back at him in slight curiosity,

“No?”

2002’s anger soften.

“I-I mean....it’s not like that! It’s just....why are you all weaker versions of me? That’s something I can’t digest!”

He made a shy pause.

“....if you can.”

“Hmph,” 680 gave an unamused look, “softie.”

“I’m not a softie!” The newcomer snaps a bit.

“Now now 680,” the lead guard told him with patience, “our newbie here wants answers and that’s exactly what we’ll give him. now....BRING IN THE VISUAL AID ZIMS!!!”

“Uh 501?” One of the guards pointed, “didn't we just passed by them?”

The group halted and they turned behind the see they were at the right side of the hallway when they passed by them. They appear to be playing a handmade board game. The Zim with round swirly equipments was shaking his fist with a rattle sound coming from within it while the other Zim equipped with a drawn board watched impatiently.

“Come on come on, give me ladder, give me ladder!” He happily said

“Please don’t him ladder please don’t give him ladder,” the other Zim muttered.

But right before the Swirly Zim would throw the dice, 501 shouted out,

“VISUAL AID ZIMS!”

They both flinched and turned to him, the swirly one ending up dropping the dice in the process. He couldn’t help but glance what he got.

“TWO DOTS!” The board one glance when he heard him happily explain, “LADDER FOR ME, SMELLY!”

The board Zim sighed,

“I hate this game....”

501 snapped his fingers to get them to look again,

“Stop getting distracted and help another Zim here give a demonstration! And make sure you give a good impression, 1282!”

“Ugh. Fine,” he said as the two stood up and went to standin front of the newcomer.

2002 watched with a blank expression as the Swirly one pulled out a Zim and voot cruiser puppet. He started off by looking as if the Zim puppet was in the cruiser and flying,

“Woooooooo! I am me! I responded to a distress signal and I’m now going through a strange vortex. Whhoooosh....”

There was awkward silence. The Swirly one nudges 1282. He sighs in response and starts the act,

“Zip-zap. Buzz buzz. I am the strange glowy device called the Zapper which is causing alternate universe to connect into one, yadda yadda yadda-“

“BOOOOSH!” The other Zim hits the puppets right onto his face.

He then lets out a whistle sound as he moves the puppets lower and lower into the ground until they hit the ground with a “pwooooosssshh!!!”.

There were few seconds of pause. He happily looks at the Fish Zim.

“I am now stuck here for all eternity, the end!”

It became completely quiet. 2002 stared at the two for a while.

“That’s.....”

He softly points out.

“That was actually really good.”

He turns to 501,

“Can I see them do that again?”

The eyepatch Zim let out a chuckle,

“Heheheheheh-no. The visual aid Zims aren’t here just to entertain you all.”

“But I thought they were-“

“STOP INTERRUPTING!”

The fish-hybrid Zim flinched and stiffened, now completely silent. The other one waited for few seconds.

“Good. Now,” he gestures to the two Zims, “as you have seen, this was you when you flew into this planet. You came out of one of the vortexes and as you were flying in, you crashed onto the Zapper, causing your ship to break down and crash onto this planet.”

“The Zapper?”

“The glowy stick thingy. You know, the one your ship hit that destroyed it? We call it the Zapper. It’s what’s what we believe to be sending signal to all the Zims from alternate universes and luring them to this void.”

2002 blinked, his fin ears raising a bit by the two words he just said.

“Alternate....universes? Did you just say alternate universes?”

“That’s right, 2002,” he smirked a bit, “all of us come from different timelines. Different timelines that are caused by every little choice we made in our life, even if it’s even for a second. It doesn’t only have to be through our little choices either but the universe around. Some might even get their thing when they are born.”

2002 stayed quiet in confusion and awkwardness when he said “thing”. 501 noticed.

“A ‘thing’ is another word we use for ‘side effect’ or ‘variation’. For example: in my timeline, I thought it would be better to take samples from cows by myself rather than letting my Gir do it. Got hit in the eye and have been wearing this awesome patch since then. And there are others who’s outcomes are different. Like 1469 over there,”

He point to the Dragonfly Zim that 2002 saw earlier,

“In his timeline, he mutated a dragonfly that bit and infected him, causing him to be a hybrid of a dragonfly.”

He points to one Zim with a giant antennae,

“Or 1010, who tried to make himself big in order to destroy a city, but there was an accident that made his antenna massive instead. It may have increased his sense of hearing. But he has to be careful not to hear noises to loud for him. Otherwise, he’ll go deaf for a week.”

“I heard that,” 1010 turn to him and shouted out from a far distance.

501 turned back to him,

“Do you understand everything I have said, 2002?”

2002 hesitated.

“So....is that why every versions of me are different? Because of their different timeline? Wait....”

He thought about it.

“Are you saying you all came here just like me?”

501 smiled widely,

“BINGO! I knew you would get it right away!”

“Uh....thanks? I think?”

“Just like you,” he continued as he looked up to see different Zims in their cells looking down at them in curiosity, “we got an irken distress signal located at Urth’s Pandora’s Quadrangle. However, when we went through the vortex, we ended up getting hit by the Zapper, caused our ships to get completely destroyed, and ended up getting us trapped here. We however don’t know where the Zapper came from. But as far as we know by using our brilliant minds, we have researched to the point of understanding that the Zapper is responsible for the signals and vortexes.”

He turns back to 2002.

“But unfortunately, long as there’s no available resources to fix our ships, we can be trapped in this void for all eternity.”

2002 remained quiet again. 680 laughed,

“501, I don’t think he understood a word you’re saying!”

“Hey it’s not like that!” The newcomer angrily looked at him, “it’s just hard to digest this whole information that’s all! Alternate universes, Zapper, things, they all sound like someone hit their own PAK. And it still doesn't explain why we have this thing on,” he held unto his collar as a gesture.

“Oh yes,” 501 nodded, “the collar, almost forgot to mention that. Well besides making sure we don’t confuse each other by the same name, the numbers actually represent a Zim’s rankings. As of right now, your ranking is number 2002. You are currently the lowest ranking Zim in all the Zimvoid. And unless a new Zim enters this void or you fight someone at the arena, you will remain to be so. You see 2002, when number 1, the highest ranking Zim and our leader, created this hierarchical society, he decided to give jobs for Zims 101-2002. And living in a world that has such limited resources, we need at least find some way to lengthen our fantastic existences.”

“Of course, we Zims would prefer doing amazing complex things then doings such minor and ridiculous tasks. So in order make this society stable,” he walked towards him with a haunting smile, “Number 1 made a unique system that rings a unique word.

His haunting smile presses against the newcomers fish bowl-like helmet.

**“ENSLAVEMENT....”**

2002 stared at 501 hauntingly staring at him that close for a long time. He eyes traces about awkwardly and then back to him.

“Do you....do this this to every newcomer?”

“Yes,” he remained in his position, “....and it never gets tiring.”

The Eyepatch Zim stayed there few seconds and finally pulled away.

“Anyhow! I guess that’s all you need to know for now. Zim guards,” he turns to the guards, “take him to his duty location.”

“But sir,” one of them asked, “what kind of duty? The tasks are all full at this point.”

“Well make one up! The more tasks the better. While you two are doing so, I’ll check up to see how 2001 is coping with this world.”

He began to walk off when 2002 called out,

“Wait! You said that this Number 1 is the leader. Can I meet him? I need to know what’s really going on here and find some way to get back home.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that 2002,” he glanced at him, “only the Elite Zims can see him. You can’t just expect to see him that easily. If you really want to meet him, you would have to beat other Zims in a gladiatorial arena.”   
  


“Gladi....wha?”   
  


501 softly groans and rolled his eyes,

”it means you need to compete with other Zims.”

“What?” The fish irken gave a look as if he was speaking nonsense, “that’s crazy! I’m not gonna just go out there and start beating up alternate versions of myself!”

“It’s the only way but...” 501 shrugged and started to walk again, “your loss.”

2002 sighs,

“Can you at least tell me who he is and what he is like?”

“Well obviously he’s a Zim like all of us,” he shrugs, “what do you expect?”

“That you would give me more details than that?”

501 sighs and fully turns back to him,

“Listen, Fish Head Zim-“

“Fish Head?” He looks somewhat confused and offended by that name.

“-If I knew, I would tell you, I would. The only thing I know is a rumor that Number 1 was able to defeat his Dib and conquer the Urth.”

He stiffened,

“He...destroyed his Dib?”

“Yup! Then again, it’s just a rumor. But I shouldn’t spend time telling you infos for several hours. You’ll learn more about the Zimvoid as you go about and do your duty. Anyhow, good luck!”

“Ok. But just to make it clear that I’m neither 2002 nor Fish Head Zim. I am Zim and Zim only!”

But the guard leader ignore him and have few seconds later left the room. The two guards held unto his shoulder, to which the new slave didn’t struggle out of them this time. Not like it would make much of a difference when this place has such high security.

“So 680,” one guard said, “what do you think will be good for him? Should we take him to the boiler room?”

2002’s heart sunk as he looked at the guard with a sense of fear on his eyes.

“Nah,” 680 said, “that would be a pointless thing to do. With a ‘thing’ like that, his water can get cooked up and make him suffocate to death. And the last thing we need is for 501 to punish us over loosing a single slave.”

The Fish Zim then breathed out a sigh of relief. But he looked at the guard again when he asked,

“Then what do you think we should do with him?”

680 pondered for a while. Then his antennae raised when something clicked.

“Actually,” he gave out a menacing grin, “I got a better idea that he can cope with.”

He leaned over and whispered to him. His antennae raised as well and he made a deep chuckle,

“It’s perfect.”

They both gave a pesky smile towards the newcomer.

2002 stood stiff and blankly glance at each of them.

“.......Why are you staring at me like that?”

——————————————————————

A scrap and metal-made building with two floors rested on the hilltop of an unknown location that appears to be somewhere underground. The building seemed strong despite looking worn out. On the entrance, there was a stool that had a bucket filled with glass shards. Several in the bucket look to have been carefully drilled into a tiny hole and then tied into a string. The shards that were not in bucket were hung on the entrance door’s ceilings reflecting by any soft light that was in this dark area.

Inside the house was one room that has somewhat old blankets, pencils, and more crumbled papers. There was some sticks on the walls the mark the days, and some drawn papers that look like like maps attached to lower walls. Some even being daily to-do list and few basically being free drawings. One can be a decent drawing of Gir, a Zapper, and the planet of the Zimvoid. The artist also made a drawing of Earth, but it’s on fire with an irken flag placed on the top of it.

Outside was starting to get a bit lighter, due to the the light of dawn piercing through the cracks of the surface above. It slightly fills the room. In one large thick and worn-out blanket laying on the ground with few others, something softly moved underneath it, along with it making a soft grunting sound. A small being wiggled half his body out of the blanket and glanced out the window to notice the dawn’s softly hidden light. He let out a yawn and patted his cheeks.

“Ok ok ok, no time for unnecessary naps now,” he said himself in a slightly high pitched voice and completely slipped out the attempted crafted bed. He let out a short stretch, patted his cheek one last time, and softly ran out of the room.

The figure then entered what seem like a working area. There were tons of maps on the wall thats almost low enough to reach the figure’s size. But because they can’t reach it, they went outside for a moment to grab a bucket out of a stool, put it down, and push the stool into the room. He pushed it against a wall and climbed up to take a map off it. He gets off, pushes the stool to a table and climbs onto it again in order for his viewpoint to reach the top of the table. He turns on a lamp that was doesn’t have a cover and it flickers on. He put the map down.

“Ok,” he grabs a marker nearby and pulls the tip out, “so from what I’m guessing, those hostile Zims seems to show up the most when it comes to markets. An incident usually happens when a random Zim is low on guard and they are alone. So if I can guess of where they might go to the most....”

He draws several small circles on parts of the location.

“It would usually be in the town’s alleys...yeah! I think that should work!”

He folds the map and put it in the storage of his PAK,

“I can start from there today and see how it goes this time!”

He hopped off the stool and went to a storage box, opening it up and digging inside until he pulls out an irken gun.

“Now then,” he pats it confidently, “let’s see if this bad boy still has the sticky goo in him!”

He walked to an opened window and looks out to spot something to target. He might as well just target that cavern boulder over there. He goes and aim. He concentrates. Then pulls the trigger.

A splat followed by a soft boom sound was heard, but nothing came out of it. The small figure grew confused and tried patting it to get it to work. When nothing still happened, he decided to look at the tip of it.

“Hm. The gangs shouldn’t have throw it against the wall that ba-“

Orange sticky goo spews out, while it still stuck onto the gun, to cover the entirety of the small irken’s face, causing him to muffle in panic. He topples unto ground and starts trying pull the goo off by using both his hands and feet.

He tugs hard and hard as much as he could while he kept muffling. Then just as his lungs started to scream for air, the goo came off, but resulted in the gun flying off the window. The irken gasped and made few gulps of air until he heard a crash and splattering sound. He glanced at the sound and gets up to look out the window. There by the ground, the gun was nearly in pieces, with nothing but orange goo splattered around it. He continues to stare down for a while. He groans in frustration.

“Fine,” he walks back to the storage box, “rope it is then.”

He let half of his body bury into the box until he was able to pull out a curled up rope. He opened the storage opening on his PAK and put it in. He then grabbed something else from the table and hopped out of the stool one last time. He ran off and started running downstairs until it slowed into very quiet steps, noticing an opening in front of the end of the staircase that leads to a room. Within that room, someone can be heard snoring. The small figure’s walk turned into a tip toe the moment he reached the ground and did so carefully as he glanced to make sure the one inside the room doesn’t wake up.

As soon as he was far enough from that room, his fast pace began to pick up again and headed for the entrance. The small figure that revealed to be a smeet happily hopped out of the entrance and let his feet drag across the ground when he landed, making him go into a complete halt. He took a moment to have a view down below the hilltop, revealing to be a town. As the cavern started faintly lit up by the day, so did the voices down below. He took a deep breath, smiling in determination before he puts on what is reveal to be a goggle he was holding. Although it may seem big on him, he always made sure the goggle’s strap was tight enough for it to fit. The digits on the smeet’s own collar reflected a bit by the light to reveal his number:

**||2000||**

He was just about to launch off and run down the hill’s trail and head for the town when-

“Mmmmf!”

2000 halted by the muffling sound of someone behind him, who reveals to have an appearance of a baloney, his pink orbed eyes giving the only irken appearance. He had an irritated look toward the smeet,

“Mmph mmm mmmfhh?”

The smeet gave a short sigh and turned to him trying to smile.

“It’s fine, Meat. It’s just a quick errand. He won’t even notice I left.”

The baloney just continued giving an unamused glare at him,

“Mmmmf mmph...”

“Not if he sees I succeeded he won’t,” he crosses his arms confidently.

He was quiet this time, but still did not look convinced.

“Don’t worry,” 2000 gave a determined smile, “today will be different. I won’t fail this time. Just make sure not to tell him and you won’t regret it! Thanks!”

And for that, he rushes off in a flash that it was no use calling him back. Even if he heard, he wouldn’t listen anyways. The baloney Zim watches him disappear into the town. He rolls his eyes. He hops his way back into the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to waiting for issue 49 to be released, the progress to writing Zimvoid is pretty slow. I am almost done writing down the third chapter, but I am at the same time taking cautions until it’s release, just so the fanfiction can stay intact with the canon version. 
> 
> If things turn out well, I am REALLY looking forward in letting my imagination soar with this one. The Battlevoid’s plot and concept is AMAZING. I feel it deserves to have a story with 2K and Palindrome and the progress of improving their skills and friendship before our Zim, Dib and Gir entered the Zimvoid.
> 
> For now, I decided to just publish the first two chapters to show off how the story is being set up. Thank you for reading!


	3. Issue 2

He felt....ridiculous. What is even a point to this errand? Why did they make such a thing? Sure, it’s better than suffocating to death as a result of working in the boiler room. But now he feels like they are just mocking him because of how he looks. He can just be watching the other slaves, or check the sewage. But here he is. Standing behind a short column with only his head showing off. And given that he wearing glass bowl filled with water in order to breathe, he basically just looks like a fish bowl sitting on the column with a big fish swimming inside there.

At this point, he felt more like he was put as a decoration rather than an actual person. Is this what being a slave is even like? Even so, he gave an unamused expression. In fact, why is HE letting other versions of himself tell him what to do? If anything, HE should be the one ordering them. He is the real Zim after all, right? But he tried to forget the thought of doubts. He needs to find a way out of this void. And to do that, he needs to contact his servant. He glanced about to make sure any Zims nearby weren’t looking. He let his PAK open automatically to pull out a communicating device. He tried to not even think of what happened to him, given the “false” memory that still linger before he crashed in this crazy place.

He let the device get close to him.  
“Gir!” He whispered, “Zim here! At least your real Zim if you happened to bump into those people who claim to be the real me. If you haven’t, it’s better you stay away from them. They might lock you up for testing or...something more horrid.”  
He thought for a moment at that last comment.  
“Not....that i care either way....”  
He shook the thought out.  
“Anyhow! I’ve been captured by them. I’m located somewhere within some walls and they’re treating me like I’m some sort of slave. But i can’t seem to find a way out. There’s too many and using my PAK’s weapons would possibly be too risky, given how clever ‘mes’ there are.”

“So! What I want you to do is-“  
“Hey there!”  
2002 harshly flinches and immediately make the communicator float back into his PAK. He glanced about to who was calling him.  
“Psst! Up here!”  
The fish Zim blinked and looked up to see a Zim on top of a high ladder and easily reaching the ceiling. He was holding a spatula for some odd reason with some stuff on the ceiling that look sticky with different colors. Strangely enough, he looks just like a regular Zim. Is he the only one without a “thing”?

“You must be 2002, right?” He asked with a smile on his face.  
2002 paused for a moment and glanced about the hallway before answering with a,  
“Uh...yes? How do you know when you can’t see my number this f-?”  
“Yes yes, I saw you!” The normal looking Zim replies, “I was in my cell when those guards brought you in, but I guess 501 forgot to mention me! I am-“  
“Zim?” His eyebrows raised, know that it was obvious everyone is Zim.

“Uh, no?” He said looking a bit offended for a second before smiling again, “I am Carl!”  
The new slave stood there for a beat.  
“Carl?” He gave a confused expression.  
“Yep! The Zims here call me by 1200. But why should I even be called a number when I can just go by my real name? If anything, I might be the only one here who’s name isn’t Zim, which makes me the most significant!” 

The fish irken blinked.  
“Rrighhht. And what are you doing all the way up there?” He pointed out.  
“Ah this. I’m just scrapping bubblegums off the ceiling.”  
“Bubblegums? We have bubblegums in the Zimvoid?”  
“Nooot exactly,” he smiled awkwardly. “You see, we have a Zim guard here that patrols this hallway every so often. And his thing is that every time he breathes out, he blows out a bubble of gum that floats up onto the ceiling. So it’s my job to keep the hallway’s ceiling nice and clean!” 

“Oh. I see.”  
That explains it, he thought to himself.  
“And what about you?” Carl almost immediately replies, “what are you doing standing behind that column?”  
2002 felt a sense of embarrassment.  
“Uh,” he looks away trying to act careless, “it’s nothing.”  
“Aw come oooon,” Carl gave a pleading smile, “it shouldn’t be as interesting as mine. Just say it!”  
It took few seconds, but the fish hybrid finally gave in with a sigh.  
“My job is to look like a fish in a bowl that’s resting on one of the columns.” 

“Heh! That’s funny. Why is that?”  
“They say it’s to make the castle more ‘decorative’ or something pathetic like that. They say it’s the only thing that can suit well for me.”  
“Hm! Interesting job! Of course, not AS interesting as the ONLY brilliant Carl! But I’m sure you can be good in other jobs! Like weapon grinding! I mean those teeth of yours are hilariously sharp and huge! you can grind good weapons out of it!”  
2002 blankly gaze at him in hidden surprise.  
“...although no one can grind better than Carl,” he adds confidently.

2002 blinked.  
“Uh. I would use my teeth for anything if it didn’t mean requiring to take off this bowl. But at least you are the nicest Zim I’ve encountered so far.”  
“It’s Carl.”  
“Right right-“

“1200!”  
They both flinched and turned to see one guard, his identity hidden from the head armor, marched near the ladder that Carl was.  
“How many times have we told you that you are not allowed to talk to anybody during your job?”  
“Well it never hurts to talk to someone every once in a while,” he easily replied, “and look!”  
He showed bunches of gun within the bucket proudly, “look how many gums the great and only Carl was able to collect!”  
“That doesn’t excuse your distractions, 1200! What if 501 saw you like this and reports this to Number 1? Do you want to join the other Rejects?” 

“Rejects?” 2002 asked questioningly.  
“Pshh,” Carl continued, “there’s no way Number 1 can do that to me. Not when my name NOT being Zim makes me so unique.”  
“No matter what your thing is, your distraction is what will make you forgotten one day.”  
“I will never be forgotten!” The slave claims, “And I will never join the rejects in that wasteland! For I am-!”  
The guard finally grew impatient. With no warning, he kicks off the ladder, causing the slave to topple off and fall head first unto the ground. And given how high he was, it was obviously a hard fall. The new slave was taken back and looked down stunned by the slave he was talking to earlier laying almost motionless on the ground. The only thing that told 2002 he was still alive was the sound of his short grunting and the twitching of one of his legs. 

The guard straightened up and let out a sigh, resulting in a bubble made out of gum to appear out of his shadowy face and float up unto the ceiling.  
“I don't think it will teach him a lesson. But it at least helped to make him stop his yapping.”  
He looked down at the fallen slave for a short while before looking at another slave who witnessed the whole thing.  
“You there!”  
2002 flinches and looks at the guard.  
“What did you expect, a theatre play? Get back to your position!” 

He wanted to say something, but he instead obeyed, his body still feeling shook at what he saw. The guard was a bit please before remembering something.  
“Besides him wanting me to check on how you’re handling the job, 501 wanted to let you know that you have few more hours left till your 13 hour shift is finished. Then you can go to your cell and think about your life.”  
10 hours....has it really been that long already? It’s amazing he hasn’t felt his PAK’s energy drain. Though it’s not like his body has done much other than standing behind a column. 

The guard stayed silent for a short while. Before 2002 can realize that he was waiting for him to respond, he crossed his arms,  
“Huh. So they’re not joking when the say the newcomer is very quiet.”  
Not wanting show that it was true, he opened his mouth to say something.  
“No matter,” the guard unfortunately cut him off, “just continue your work and no slacking.”  
His ear fins lowered in a bit of humiliation. But he watched as the guard turned and walked away. 

A groan was heard again, cutting his thoughts off of the guard and looked down at the other slave that was now trying to get up with much effort.  
“Ugh. Well at least it wasn’t my back that hit the ground.”  
Strangely enough, there was a soft part of him that made him worry of this complete stranger he met a only short while ago.  
“Uh. Are you ok?”  
“Psh. Of course I’m fine,” he grunt more when he tries to stand, “I am Car-oof!”

He lost balance and fell back on the ground.  
“...ok, this is a tiny bit embarrassing.”  
2002 frowned more. He glanced to make sure the guard was completely gone. Then he left his job position just to walk fast paced and kneel beside the other Zim.  
“Here,” he held him by his shoulder.  
The moment he did so, Carl looked at him in confusion.  
“What are you doing?”  
“Helping you get up.”

“Funny,” Carl eyes furrowed, “a real Zim should look after himself.”  
“I DO look after myself!” He snapped, causing the other one to quietly look at him more confused.  
2002 sighed.  
“Look. I’m only helping you because you’re myself, so it’s the same thing. Let me just help you up before the guard decides to come back.”  
Carl didn’t question any further and just let’s the new Zim help him get up.  
“Hm. You’re a stranger Zim than I thought.”  
“Heh,” he tries to smirk a bit, “that’s what makes me the best.”  
“Who told you that you were the best Zim?” He argued with him.

Meanwhile, a little far out from the hallway and behind the column, a guard peeked out and looked at two Zims. His eye set the most on the newcomer that aided an injured Zim and squinted his eyes. He looks down at a paper he was holding and writes something down. He puts it down and completely leaves the hallways. 

It took a while for the guard to join the chamber and approach the same guard that confronted the two slaves. He noticed him approaching and turns to him,  
“Did you find anything suspicious about our newcomer?”  
“Don’t worry,” he took off his helmet, revealing to be 501, “I think I got to know everything about him. All that newcomer needs now at this point is pure luck.”

—————————————————-

Quick panting sounds are heard as each feet kicked back the dirt for how fast he was running. A yellow-skinned Zim with redder eyes and a bug-like wing, revealing to be a hybrid a bee, ran while hugging a bag for dear life. But he soon came to a dead end by huge piles of junk blocking the alley. He glances in fear to see the shadows appearing and drawing closer with a distant voice shouting in the distance. The bee Zim looked at his his small wing and sigh,  
“Come on wing, it’s not that high.”  
He looked back up at the pile, focusing on his goal, and started flapping his wings. The more effort he put on it, the more he started to hover in the air. It was taking all the energy from him, but he tried to ignore the limit, continuing to focus as he gets closer and closer to the goal.  
He pants but smiles,  
“Heheh heheh....I’m doing it! Heh! I’m doing it! Victory for-!!”

He lets out a grunt of of surprise as a rope is thrown unto him and tightly grips around his body. He is then yanked down, making him tumble onto the ground for a second or two. He was now feeling too weak to get up at this moment due to the energy he costed on his PAK. Even so, he weakly turned his head to look at a Zim with a cowboy outfit looking down at his catch. He hacks up and spits out saliva before turning behind him,  
“I got ‘im, Sword Cat.”  
“Hah!” A brown cat Zim with a sword tucked underneath his belt came next to him and looked at the bee Zim with a mischievous smile, “great work, Sheriff! Now then, little bee guy.”

He approaches the captured Zim on the ground, who was still holding the bag,  
“Why don’t we all just call it truce and give us that little honey of yours? We won’t do any harm by leaving you all tied up on the rope until there’s luck that someone might get you.”  
A ninja Zim came up to the left side of Sword Cat,  
“Uh. Sword Cat? I think that lie was a little too obvious.”  
“No it wasn’t!” The cat angrily looked at his ally, “if anything, my tactic on lying to that Zim about not leaving him tied up was a brilliant success!” 

The cowboy leaned close to his side,  
“Uh. You straight up just revealed it again.”  
“No I did not!”  
“Dude,” the bee Zim said unamused despite still hugging the bag, “you know how I can hear exactly what you said.”  
“Oh yeah?!” He gave the captured irken hybrid a challenging glare, “then tell me, little buzzer! What did I say?!”  
“That you’re going to leave me tied after you take my honey.” 

“NO I DIDN'T! I-!”  
He cuts off and takes a moment to think. After a short while, he shook his head.  
“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” he pulls out his sword and points it to him, “give us the honey.”  
“No!” The bee Zim hugs it more dearly, “it’s the only honey that survived the crash! My small glorious wings will not flap better without it!”  
“Well we don’t care. Give it!” 

“No!” He tried to use the strength he hope he has by look directly at him with a squint, “if you want it, you will have to get through me first!”  
Sword Cat quietly stared at the weak Irken.  
“....Really?”  
“I-I’m serious! Y-you will regret it!”  
The cat once again quietly gazed at him with unamusement. Then he looked at both of his two members, who seem to agree on his thought about his unworthy motivation. He looks back at him.  
“Alright.”

He raised up his sword again with the two others gathering around him, their eyes sharply at him,  
“Let’s see what you got.”  
They started walking towards him. The bee Zim quivered, but still tried to remain determined.  
“G-get back! Don’t come any closer! Y-you will definitely regret it by....b-by my ambush!”  
“Oh yeah?” The cat lifted his eyebrow smiling with a challenged expression, “by what army?” 

“None other than me!” A child-like voice shouted out.

The Zims paused in the position and looked about. The bee Zim grew confused as he was looking for the source.  
“Who said that?”  
“Aha! Look above you!”  
When they heard more clearly where the voice was coming from, they looked at one of the building nearby to see a small figure standing on top of it proudly. He jumps up, revealing to be holding onto a rope as he swings unto a wall and used his rope to push his feet off of it. He slides down the rope in time to land in front of the Zim that was in trouble with in a heroic looking landing pose. 

His head raised to look at the gangs with a determined smile.  
“Sword Cat! We meet again!”  
All the Zim went quiet.

The gangs showed to be pretty annoyed as the cowboy one facepalmed and sighed.  
“Here we go again.”  
The bee version blinked and his face turned into confusion.  
“Uh. Am I looking at myself....as a baby?”  
“Heh!” The smeet glanced at him still confident, “I may be a baby. But I am still a Zim at heart!”

“What. Are you doing here, Baby?” Sword Cat asked in irritation.  
“My name is not Baby!” The smeet narrowed, “I am Zim! Better nicknamed as 2K. Which is a nickname more brilliant than than any Zim has to go by-!”  
“Right right right,” the cat Zim said impatiently, “but what are you going to try this time? What’s with the sudden change of not trying to ambush us?” 

“Well,” 2K started to state out, “as I was looking back at the few attempts I have made on my plans, I have come to the realization that my unnecessary failures did not come from ambushing you out of nowhere. Instead, I have come to the conclusion, thanks to my brilliant mind, that in order to defeat someone, I need to show just how threatening I really can be!”  
“....And in order to do so was to make your grand entrance?”  
“Yup! Pretty neat, huh?”

The gangs stared at him unamused.  
“That’s...the dumbest thing I ever heard,” the ninja said.  
“It done sure sound like you ran out of ideas,” the cowboy spoke.  
“No I haven't! And besides, this is my best plan yet-“  
“Just like you have said with your previous ones,” Sword Cat crosses his arms.  
The smeet hesitated. He growled and clenched his teeth in frustration,  
“Nnnnnngh it doesn’t matter! You will be defeated this time!” 

He charges over and launches onto him, only for Sword Cat to catch him by grabbing his antennae. 2K grunts in pain and flails his leg shouting,  
“Nngh! Ow ow! Let me go! Stop it! You won’t get away this easily! You will regret the day you messed with-“  
He continued to yap about while attempting to punch and kick him with his tiny arms and legs, which barely hit him whatsoever. The leader of the gang remained gazing at him unamused before tracing his eyes to the cowboy version.  
“Sheriff, do me a favor and tie this annoying chatterbox up. I’ll take care of the bee.” 

Sheriff nods and goes over to be the one to hold onto the smeet by the atennae. He walks off to do what he is told. The Sword Cat walks over to the bee and kicks him down, causing him let out a sound of a harsh grunt and leaving him half conscious. He bends down and took the jar of honey from him before fully standing to look at it in pride.  
“Heheh, yes yes. Guess what we will be having tomorrow night, Zims.”

“Gah!” 2K voice can be heard, “hey! That’s too tigh-gh!”  
“Quiet, will you?” The cowboy said before making the last knot. 2K was now laying on the ground all tied up by the rope as he squirms about violently there, trying to break free.  
“That should just about do it,” Sheriff stood up and turned to the cat, “will you like me to do anything else with him?”  
“Eh,” he shrugged, “you can let him and the bee be as they are. We got the honey. So let’s get out here before some guards see us.”

“You think the guards will care?” The ninja asked.  
“They will care if they see me. Now let’s go already.”  
They went ahead and walked off. The bee grunted and was regaining consciousness as he weakly looked out at the gangs walking away.  
“Nah...no...my honey! What am I going to do? How will my wings be able to work again? How will I be able to fly around the town?!”

2K stared at the distressed alternate version of himself.  
“Uh...hey! I got an idea,” he smiles, “I know exactly where their base is! Maybe if you can untie me and join the resistance, we can go over and get your honey back. Sounds cool?”  
“Sounds cool?” The bee angrily looked at him, “why would I join a group when they have a member that can’t even defend himself?”  
2K sighed,  
“Ok. Maybe I may have lost this time. But this time will be different!”  
“Whatever,” he shakily gets up while fighting back the injury, “I’ll find a way to get through this void without. Thanks for the help.”  
He walks off. 2K blinks in realization of something.  
“Uh. Hey. Can you at least tie me? Hey. HEY!” 

He struggles violently again and even tries to bite the rope off with his buck tooth only with his collar being in the way.  
“Nngh! Stupid! Collar! Agh! I WILL GET YOUR HONEY BACK FOR SURE!” He angrily shouts out while alone in the alley, “THEN YOU WILL LOOK BACK TO THIS AND WISH YOU COULD HAVE JOINED THE RESISTANCE EAR-!”

———————————- 

It was now night time. All the Zims in the underground town were already closing their doors and calling it a day. 2K remained stuck at one of the alleyways, already have exhausted himself from shouting the entire day. He can do nothing but lay there facing up in boredom as he looked at each stains on the wall.  
“46.....47........47, 48....49. Wait did I count the stains right? I think I might have said ‘47’ twice.” He wondered out loud to himself.  
“....eh. Who cares. If anything, I’ll just try again.”  
His eyes traced to the first wall stain he sees and starts counting from the beginning.  
“1,2,3....”

With the smeet counting again, a local Zim can hear a child-like voice within one of the alley way. He hops over to see who it is until he can see a familiar figure.  
“Mmmph?”  
2K immediately stop counting. He softly turns his head to see who it is and saw a baloney far off looking at him. At that point, he did not show any change of expression. Ofcourse he would be the one to find him here.  
“Oh. Hey, Meat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ISSUE 49 HIDDEN SPOILERS
> 
> I needed to halt this chapter for a short while due to the release of issue 49. I really needed to figure out how I will end this fanfiction, along with having to cope with everything that happened in it. 
> 
> But after all the theories I have gathered from readers who read the issue, I am ready to go ahead and continue writing the Zimvoid. Thank you so much for those have started to following the story, I really appreciate it. :3


	4. Issue 3

2K, who was already freed from the rope, is shown following Meat as the two walked through the town that is already deserted. The infant Zim would usually be walking in a energetic and confidential tone, but they seem to be drain after what happened today. If anything, he felt pretty annoyed and bummed out, but tried his best not to show it that much. After few minutes of the two walking quietly, 2K finally spoke by saying,

“I still don’t know how you were able to untie me back there. But uh...thanks....I guess.”

“Mmmph mmf?” Meat muffled questionably.

“Eh, what happened to me doesn’t matter,” the smeet replied, “what does matter is that tomorrow, I’ll figure out a way to get that bee Zim’s honey back! ....along that other plumber Zim’s screwdriver.....and that chef Zim’s pancakes.”

The Meat glanced at him for a moment. He looked back out at the path.

“Mmmph mmmf mmph.”

“Ugh, really?” 2K said in soft annoyance, “does he really want to talk to me?”

“Mmmph.”

“Well yes, I can understand he was wondering where I was, but can’t he just be glad nothing happened to me?”

“Mmph!”

2K sighs,

“Fine, but he better make it quick. I’m suppose to go to sleep early. Especially when I wasted my Pak’s energy screaming the entire day.”

They spent the next several minutes walking up the hill and eventually returned to their base. Entering the base, The Meat made a sound to signal someone of their return.

“Ah,” a voice was heard from one room, “I’m glad to hear. Let him come over.”

The baloney turned to 2K and gestured him to the room. Having no other choice, he walked over and entered the room.

The room seems to be peaceful in a sort of way. Almost like a good place to meditate. A elderly looking Zim can be seen sitting on a purple cushion with his legs crossed. His usual tired eyes flickered open to look at the infant version of himself and gave a sense of full relief.

“Ah, 2K. My fellow young Zim. It’s good you got here safe and sound. Tell me, are you hurt? We’re you beaten by those Zim gangsters again?”

The smeet blushed a bit in embarrassment and tried to think of the best answer.

“Uh...they....they didn’t! Yeah!” He smiles in confidence, “in fact they were so scared of me that they didn’t beat me up whatsoever! I really think I am making a great progress!”

“Mmph...” The Meat peeked in stating something. The elderly Zim looked out in surprise.

“They tied him up and left him at an alley?”

2K harshly stiffens and sharply glared at him in irritation,

“MEAT!”

But The Meat just shrugged it out with a sound that’s suppose to have the tone telling him that he had to tell him. He then left the two alone. 2K made a quick sigh and turned back to him,

“Ok. So what if they did left me tied up? They still didn’t hurt me this time! That just shows how much they are really starting to see my greatness!”

The elderly Zim remained quiet but raised a brow. The smeet gave a blank gaze. He gave a face of defeated.

“Alright alright yes. I did get defeated...again. But you can see how much progress I’m making right? I promise by tomorrow, I’ll target their base and get everything they have taken for sure! Then I’ll prove to you that you have no regret on recruiting me!”

The old man was quiet for a few seconds. His suspicions soften.

“I still don’t regret recruiting you.”

2K hesitated and just looked in confusion.

“Uh...ok?”

His eyes traced about the room.

“So....does that mean you will promote me now?”

He looked at him for a short while and smirk in a soft tease shaking his head. He gestures to him,

“Come sit in front of me, young one.”

2K makes one last gaze at him and sighs again, this time calmer. He went ahead and sat, crisscrossing his legs before looking directly at him with still a soft defeated expression.

“Look,” the old man began, “I understand that you can’t help it. Honestly,” he softly chuckles, “I wish I had the wacko kind of energy as you do. But you must understand that you cannot fight off other Zims by yourself.”

2K opened his mouth.

“And even though training is helping you keep your strength, you understand it’s not gonna last long in your condition.”

2K closes his mouth.

“You should understand that your job right now as the newest member of the Resistance-“

“Keep watch of the town and notice anything different and new yadda yadda yadda,” 2K managed to speak out something while crossing his arms in annoyance, “Come on, I’ve been doing it for what? A week now? When will I start doing the fun stuff already? I wanna thwack more guys’ squeedlyspooches already!”

“You will when the time comes,” the old Zim reassures him, “you are intelligent, confidential and full of energy. but you have to understand there are some things that are limited to you. In fact I was thinking about it since you started your duties in the resistance. I wasn’t uncertain at first, but after days of thinking about it....”

He looks directly back at the member,

“I think you’re going to need a partner.”

There was utter silence for few seconds.

“....a what?” 2K’s eyebrow raised in suspicions.

“As I have told you earlier, there are things from you that are flawed. As confident as you are, you tend to get too confident and reckless to the point that you end up getting yourself hurt. Not to mention that in your condition, things will keep getting harder.”

“Pssh! Excuse my rejection, Elder. But I don’t need a partner who can only do nothing but look after me. I’m not that helpless!”

“2K-“

“And besides, I’ve tried teaming up with a Zim few times and they always decline because they they think I’m ‘too weak’ or ‘they don’t want to become babysitters’. Ugh! What do they think? They’re just jealous of me because they know I’m better than them! They just won’t admit it-gah!”

The old Zim gave him a soft whack on the head with a pipe he usually carries.

He calmly puts it away while his eyes tries to remain understanding of his member’s situation.

“2K. You have only been with us for several days,” he stated once the smeet fully recoveredand looked at him in irritation, “it’s normal for everybody to doubt you. But trust me. There should be someone out there who would be willing to team up with you.”

2K made a pause.

“....yeah,” he softly squinted, “as if you can read the future. I appreciate it, Elder, but it’s better I do everything by myself. Having a partner will just make me look weaker.”

He fully let go his head.

“I’m going to bed.”

And with that he leaves the room and can be heard going up the stairs with the Elder looking out.

“Rest well, fellow-“

The door upstairs is heard slamming shut, cutting him off mid-sentence. He stared up and sigh whileshaking his head before the Meat is seen hopping back into the room.

“Mmph?”

“Nahhh it’s fine, Meat. There’s no need to lecture him. He’ll come through it eventually. He just needs time to cope with this world.”

“Mmph,” the Meat narrowed.

“Eh. It is hard to cope with the behavior that he has. After all, he appears to be a little more patient when interacting with me. Possibly because I’m the only one can see his potentials....after all that what makes me the greatest Zim!”

The Meat stared at him unamused. The Elder let his zimness shake out of him and cleared his throat.

“Anyhow, there’s no doubt he needs a partner. Someone who is the opposite of him...but whom he can connect with at the same time. I mean after all. The Zimvoid has indeed just hit the population of over two thousand Zims. So there’s no doubt there’s a Zim like that somewhere.”

——————————————————————-

The cell door opens. Once it did so, 2002 was pushed inside there and the guards immediately slammed the door. The Fish Zim took a moment to recover and looked back at them, with 501 right in front of them smirking.

“You did well on your first day of slavery, 2002. Rest up or ponder about your life while you can. Your shift continues in several hours.”

2002 looked at them in soft confusion.

“Uh...right-“

“Oh! And one more thing.”

The cell door quickly opened again and before he can react, something small bonked unto his bowl and fell on the ground, taking him a moment process what just hit him by looking down. He notices what appears to be a small and grey looking cube.

“....uh,” he grew more confused as he picks it up, “what’s this?”

“Ration cube!” He happily answered, “the best our class has to offer!”

2002 looked at him for a moment and then down at the cube uncomfortably.

“You sure you guys...don’t have anything better?”

“Look,” 501 crosses his arms, “it’s either you have that or you can eat pieces of scraps at the Wasteland.”

“I mean, no. I prefer the ration cube. But what do you mean by the Wa-?”

“Good. Now eat up. That is if you’re able to with that bowl on your head. There’s thing I need to do,” he walks off, leaving the guards to scatter about and check up on other prisoners. 2002 stared off for a short while in confusion before looking back at the cube. He had no choice but to sit down and relax for a moment. He looked at his PAK and pressed one of the button, causing half of it to open. He places the ration cube inside it and closed his PAK shut.

He tapped the three buttons on his PAK until he can fill it softly vibrate and make a vacuum-like sound. Something passed out of the PAK and through his tube until the food popped into his bowl. He waited for it float right in front of his face and once it did so, he used his irken tongue to quickly reach out and grasp it, pulling it into his mouth. He took a moment to chew on it and process the taste of it.

Hm......seems alright. He guess he’ll take it.

Once he chewed it up and swallowed, he felt himself be decently fed as let himself lay down on the most comfortable position, his hands resting on his stomach in boredom. In all honestly, there’s really nothing he can do but create bubbles. He has gotten pretty good at making bubble shapes, especially when it comes to someone who has had his head always stuck in a bowl full of water for who know how long? How long since he grew gills? Not like it really matters anymore. He let the thoughts drift away and instead thought about which bubble to make.

And when he made one up, his cheeks puffed and let his tongue play around with the air that was inside his mouth, making sure he was doing so correctly. And finally when finished, he spat out a bubble, which showed to have a formation of a cube. His eyes glistened a bit in soft pride. Not bad. In fact it looks to be better than the previous cube-shaped bubbles he made. Gir would be astounded if he saw-

His soft smile quickly fade by the thought again of his robot just as soon as the bubble hit the glass and popped. He did not realize until now just how strange it was to not have his SIR unit at his side. Sure, he’s been in situations where he’s been captivated and would have to wait for him to do SOMETHING useful in order to get him out of here. But never this long. What’s taking him so long? A hint of a memory flashed his mind a bit, but he instantly shook it off in denial of it being real. He’ll be fine. He’s sure he’s just out there not knowing what he’s suppose to do or randomly pretending to be a cake again.

He just hopes Gir remembers his duty before this void drives him insane.

He curled himself up, staring off at the world he’s in. Maybe there’s a chance that when he closes his eyes, he will reopen them to find himself in his house base again, possibly knocking out from eating too much of that taco snack and calling this experience a crazy dream. The drainage of his PAK’s energy finally consumed him and he drifted off into slumber.

———————————————

2K placed his goggle in the drawer and closes it. After doing so, he tiredly walked over to a wall of his bedroom that had six drawn white sticks. He grabs a white chalk stick nearby and draws an additional white stick next to them. He pulls away and looked at the drawn wall. A week. It has now been a week since he crashed into the Zimvoid. And as a result, it’s been six days since he was recruited into the resistance. That doesn’t seem too long. After all, he still has time. He just needs to keep recruiting members and once there are enough, they can storm into the castle and get past through securities. Then the Elites (which it’s hard to tell what they are and what advantage they might have). And finally to Number 1, who may likely be the combination of all of the Elites.

As of right now, the risk on taking down Number 1 without getting everyone killed is still incredibly high. Without any good equipment and technology, it seems it will take forever till the Resistance can think up of the best strategy. And if this is the case.

The smeet frowns in concerns. What if he doesn’t....

He shook his head.

“No no no,” he talked to himself as usual, “Ofcourse I’m going to get back home. I am Zim after all. The best out of all the others! I never fail!”

He was silent for a moment. He sighs. He puts the chalk down and sat down hugging his knees. He softly looked back at the recorded days, still showing a hidden sense of worry, but tried to be determined. Nothing else matters right now. Just the first step to his goal was in his mind.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow for sure I will succeed.”

————————-

501 walked passed the hallways, walked up many stairs to get to his destination. He carried the papers full of analyzations and records of the slaves as he approaches a massively shut gate. When he approached he sees a button on a wall and presses, causing it to make one soft beeping sound. The monitor on one wall lits up static until it clears to see a figure silhouetted by the flames behind him. He however appears to not be fazed by the fire that was consuming his entire body. 501 spoke to the one on the screen,

“I have today’s records. Will you like me to send it to you?”

The figure’s eyes showed a sense of pleasure,

“Ah yes, the daily record! Yes, go ahead and transfer it to me.”

501 dipped his head, watching the figure look down at something and pressing it. A slot automatically opens up from another part of the wall, which has an opening big enough to fit piles of papers inside. 501 places the records inside and watches it go inside.

At another room where the figure is at, the flames can be seen softening with the figure still having parts of his body burning from the fire. The figure watches the slot open and reaches out to grab the papers out of it. He took a minute to read all of the records before something caught his interest by the record of one particular slave. He perked a mischievous smile.

“Hm....interesting.”

The door of the flame room automatically opens, letting out all the flaming smoke. The figure that was carrying the papers walked out of the smoke in a sort of prideful manner. This particular Zim, who appears to be quite taller than an average one, walked through what appears to be a training room. Many Zims of different variations can be seen working out to the fullest while making endless chants. The tall figure continued onward by walking up the staircase and eventually making his way to a door that was guarded by an energy field. The figure nonchalantly brushed off the last amount of flame coming from his cloak, resulting in his digits reflecting a bit:

**|0-0-0-2|**

“Number 1,” he calls out, “it’s me. I’m here to give you the daily reports.”

“Very well,” a voice came from within the door, “come in, Number 2.”

The energy field turns off, allowing the taller irken to enter the room before having it turn back on. The room was almost dark enough to barely see anything. But after continuing his short travels through the hallway, he finally made it to the room where the voice was at. Two red electric lights are seen in both side of the throne and on it, a mysterious looking Zim, who can barely be seen except for his ruby orb eyes. Number 2 approaches the figure and gets down on one knee.

“It is my pleasure to stand before you again, my glorious Zim.”

The figure was pleased, but wasted no time by responding,

“Report all the guards have discovered from the slaves.”

The other Zim nodded and stood back up, looking down at the papers.

“1997 has been kicked out of the walls as you have ordered. 2001 is shown to be making great progress on coping with his new life. As for 1691, he unfortunately thought he would defeat 100, but got knocked out as a result. He is still being treated by the Medical Zims.”

“I see....” Number 1 said, “and have any new Zims arrived.”

“The arrival of new Zims still seems slow since 2000’s arrival. Our guess as of right now could be that there are now least amount of ourselves who have decided to respond to the signal.”

The figure pondered about it.

“Hmm....make sense.”

“I will however report that a new Zim did indeed arrive at the Zimvoid. He goes by 2002 and his thing is being a fish hybrid. However, he requires a water suit in order to survive.”

Number 1 directly looks at him in interest.

“Hm. Never thought there would be another fish hybrid that would enter this void.”

“Indeed, my Zim. Though...there is one other thing about him that you should know about. Something...that’s not Zim-like.”

His eyes gazed at the taller Zim. Their softly glowing eyes ominously squinted.

“Go on.”


	5. Issue 4

_The sea rippled strongly on what looked to be a clear day. The sky was blue, the cloud was white as snow, gust of winds blew but not too strong. A voot cruiser zips by close to the water surface, causing it to spray in its track. As the the cruiser continues on, the sky starts getting darker and darker. Inside the voot, 2002, originally known as Zim, was driving the vehicle while his Gir looked out with his glowing light pink eyes in awe by the scenery. The voice of his computer came up just as soon as he started to notice something strange about the weather._

_**“Approaching coordinates now. Weather condition unknown.”** _

_“Ugh,” the fish irken groaned in irritation, “Ofcourse. This stupid planet always has a thing with its strange weathers. Especially in the middle of the at....blantis whatever-you-call-it ocean.”_

_He then looked about the ocean._

_“What is this mysterious irken even doing here? They could have burned out to death by the Urth’s water for all we know. Unless their ship crash landed here...or if they have the same condition as mine. Even so, where are they? We approached the coordinate and I don’t see a trace.”_

_A happy beeping sound can be heard from his Gir as he happily taps him and pointed out to something. 2002 went ahead and looked out at what he found. His eyes furrowed._

_“....That’s just a glass bottle, Gir.”_

_Gir made a questionable beep._

_“No, we will not open it to find a message. Not in this weather. Now,” he looks back while tapping the buttons and looking at the monitor, “computer, locate where the distressed irken is at.”_

_“ **Distressed irken is up ahead at the swirly vortex.”**_

_He looked up and noticed what appears to be a gigantic strong dark grey vortex that has been covering the entire sky, it’s strength already starting to be felt by how it’s beginning to pull the ship along with making it softly vibrating by the powerful wind. He looks up uncomfortably._

_“You...sure that’s where they’re at?”_

_**“Correct. However, the origin of the vortex appears to be unknown. There’s something strange about it that won’t let me analyze it further.”** _

_“Hm,” he softly frowns, “looks dangerous. But it would be kind of foolish of me to leave a stranded irken in there like this. Maybe if I just go a little higher to see if anybody really is in there...”_

_He lets the ship go a little closer to the vortex and peeks withIn the opening, only to just see gust of clouds swirling violently within. The center of the vortex appears to be endless._

_“Hm....I don’t seem to see-“_

_Suddenly, the gust of wind from the vortex started to strongly pull the ship inside, causing the Irken to cut mid-sentence by the realization._

_“Oh dookie...”_

_He tried to stir the ship away from the vortex and blast away from it. But not even the ship’s strongest thruster can fight against the strength of the weather. The ship plummets into the vortex. Everything in the voot cruiser began to violently rattle as the alarms starts going off and the lights began to weakly flicker. 2002 now started to take this serious as he gripped unto the steering handles and looked at Gir, who have flown to the other side and is just dazed in confusion by everything happening around him._

_“Gir! Hold onto something as tightly as you can!”_

_Gir glanced about and ponder before hugging himself._

_“Besides yourself!”_

_2002 didn’t have time to check if Gir was doing as he was told before looking back out._

_“Computer! Find the best direction to exit.”_

_“ **Zzzz...can’t....identify. Signal is-zzzt!”**_

_“Rrgh! Thought so. It looks like I have no choice but to let the vortex take me head on!”_

_He stopped stirring the ship away and let the wind take his ship whatever it was taking him. He notices a green light at the other side of the vortex._

_“This looks like our exit. If I can speed up so I can zip out of the storm...”_

_he suddenly noticed his SIR unit rush over to look at what was in front of them._

_“Gir!” He shouted out in frustration, “how many times have I told you!”_

_The robot’s pink eyes glistened in awe by the sight of the green light that became brighter and brighter._

_“Hold onto to anything on the ship and you should be-!”_

_The ship crashes unto the mysterious green light, causing the electricity to violently surge through the ship and make 2002 let out a harsh grunt, feeling his body be thrust forward and hit against the glass window. With his eyes still facing his SIR unit, he within a second watched the electricity violent surge through the robot, blowing his entire fried body apart. 2002 looked in blank horror and disbelief. He did not notice his ship starting to make a plummet to the ground._

_“.....Gir?”_

_He heard a loud crash and bang, feeling his body violent fly within the cruiser._

_He blacked out._

—————————————————————————

**“2002!”**

The fish irken gasps and jumps awake, his body heaving to the point that few bubbles came out of his mouth. For some odd reason, it felt as if his body within his suit was boiling.

“Finally you’re awake,” he quickly turns to see 501 and the guards, who have already opened his cell door, “what the heck were you dreaming about?”

2002 gazed at them, still processing back to where he was at.

“D....dreaming?”

“You were trembling like crazy and kept saying things like ‘it didn’t happen’ multiple times,” one guard stated.

“....I did?”

“You know what? Whatever,” 501 spoke again impatiently, “talking about a Zim’s dream would leave us here all day. We have a new job for you.”

At that moment, the pondering of his dreaming cut off from the slave, his eyes now showing full attention.

“A new job?”

“Yup!” 501 smiles, “We got a message back from Number 1 and he knows just the best place for you. So we better get moving if you wanna see what it is.”

2002 blinked, his mind processing everything he was saying. The leader of all Zims.....is seeing potential in him? It can’t be. He’s only been in this void for a day. And he has done nothing but stand behind a short column, pretending to be a decoration all day. Unless that is if he may have been told about himself by one of his guards and actually see greatness in him...

“Well? You coming or not?”

2002 blinked back, realizing he was just quiet there for quite a while. If Number 1 is really rewarding him, he can’t just throw it away now. Anything that can be better than having to be stuck in a cell or used as decoration.

“Uh, yeah!” He smiled, “Sure. I’m coming.”

The guards gave space so he can get out of the cell. 501 gestures him,

“Follow me.”

2002 nods as the lead guard started leading the way to their destination.

——————————————-

For some odd reason, 501 and the other guards have escorted him to the top of the walls that are surrounding the gladiatorial arena and the castle. Although the Zapper cannot be seen, it’s green light can softly be seen in the distance and the horizon that had a purple tinted color, letting him know that it is early dawn. Being so high above, he can feel the breeze slightly brush his suit as he looked about his surrounding, eventually seeing some of the vortexes high above, which look extremely familiar to the one he went through.For some strange reason though, it wasn’t sucking in anything. They were just...there. Possibly the ones that are making the winds.

He finally noticed a crescent moon, companied by millions of stars in the night sky. He could not help but be in awe. Despite how prisoned he was in this world, he cannot help but admire the scenery. Its empty and seemingly dead...but strange and beautiful at the same time.

“Over here,” he turns to 501 when he called to him. He makes a head gesture to look out. He was hesitant, but 2002 walked up to the edge of the wall and looked out at what was in front of him. He did not realize until now that when he meant by the world being pretty dead, he didn’t mean that the world was this dead. Everything outside the walls were just rocks, dirts, and piles of junk. There was no sign of life whatsoever. Now that he thinks about it...

“Uh....what am I suppose to be looking at?”

501 gives a nod to the guards while he’s looking out and they walk towards him.

“If anything all I see are pieces of ju-“

He suddenly felt several hands harshly push him off the wall. He lets out a scream and tried to activate his spider legs, which for some odd reason, the weapon equipments in his PAK weren’t coming out at all. But after what felt like forever, his body fell unto the ground and made a him roll a bit before coming to a complete stop.

His body quivered a bit and he grunted, trying to recover his pain from the fall. It was a miracle he was not seriously injured after a fall like that, but part of his body still hurt. Nonetheless, he was able to fully sit up and look up at the walls the guards were standing at and looking down at him in pleasure. 501 went to the front and called out,

“Congratulations, 2002! This will be your new home now! At the Wasteland with all the other Reject Zims.”

He made a pause. Wait, what? What did he say? What is he talking about?

“Reject Zims?”

“Yup! Zims that have either turn against the system or Number 1 finds no use for!”

“But I never planned on turning against the system!” 2002 narrowed, “I was doing everything you asked me to do! I spent 13 hours or more pretending to be a decoration! I followed every rule!”

“True true,” 501 nodded, “but even so, Number 1 said his words and that’s all there is to it.”

“What words?” He squinted, now feeling a sense of anger starting to click within him.

“Oh 2002,” 501 crosses his arms, “isn’t it obvious? Even we saw it the second you set foot in the Zimvoid. You’re far too soft.”

2002 blinked,

“Too...soft?”

“Oh it’s written all over you. You crying out for your Gir, your politeness. Not to mention how you helped that Zim after he fell off the ladder.”

“What? No! I would never do such a thing like-“

“I saw you 2002. There no need to lie to me.”

“....you what?!” His eyes widened in disbelief.

“It’s part of my job after all,” 501 shrugs, “finding new Zims isn’t my only role. I’m the leader of all the guards after all. So it’s my job to do as many tasks as I possibly could in order to keep the slavery system in check. Even if it means spying on each of them.”

The fish irken remained quite, but his face now showed a mixture of disbelief and anger.

“Oh cheer up, 2002. Wipe the anger off your face. Look on the bright side! You don’t have to work anymore. You are free to roam about this world and do whatever you like. Ofcourse just as long as you don’t go near the walls or the Zapper site.”

“And what do you think I’m suppose to do here?! There’s nothing here! And I can’t find the Rejects anywhere!”

“Oh you’ll find them. You will just have to figure it out yourself. As for us, we’ll be continuing our duty. Stay out of trouble!”

They start leaving when 2002 remembers something.

“Wait! Is there water around here?! How am I suppose to change my bowl when it gets dirty?!”

But they were already gone, leaving former slave to be alone outside the walls.

He lets out a sigh. He looks about the lifeless land.

“...Well...at least I was able to break out of there. Sort of.”

He glanced at his PAK. He automatically opens and takes out the communicating device. But when he tries activating anything, whether it’s his spider legs or any other weapons or equipment, nothing happens. It seems most of the functions on his PAK has been disabled, most likely due to the effect of the Zapper. Yet, somehow, his communicating device is still able to come out of his PAK. There’s however no telling if it will work this time. Maybe it didn’t work because he was trapped indoors. If he can just get a second of good signal.

He took a breath,

“Gir! Come in! What’s making you respond so long?!”

Nothing but static sounds came from the device.

“Gir! I said come in!”

He waited, but nothing. Ok? Maybe...

“Miniwhale! Come in, Miniwhale! I’m stuck in a void, can you read me?”

He waited, but not even his other servant was responding to him. Possibly because getting connection from another timeline is impossible.

He sighs.

“Whatever,” he puts the communication device away, “I can figure out how to get out of here by myself with my great intelligence. All I need is to find my ship, analyze the damage, and then scavenge for the requirements in other crashes ships. Then again...”

He looks out at a soft green light at the distance,

“That will mean I would have to go near the Zapper site. And it’s likely the guards go there to find any arriving Zims. What would they do if they catch me walking about there...?”

He was silent for a short while. But shook his head.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m sure I’ll figure out a way,” he said before running off.

Withinseveral minutes passed, he can see the sight of the Zapper from the horizon. And luckily, he does not see any signs of guards around just yet. Looking good. He can feel his heart pumping in confidence, his eyes lit up in determination as he starts running closer to the site.

“Yeah. You got this, Zim! I can do this. I can d-“

He suddenly runs to a hole that he did not see, causing him to fall in. He yelps out in panic and tried to stop him self from sliding down the steep ground, but it was no use. He was sliding down fast with everything getting darker the deeper he got. Until finally, the steepness stopped on a flat rocky ground, making him tumble and roll about on it, going to a complete stop with his body laying face down.

He soon grunted, shakily using most of his strength to get up again. Seriously. He just been pushed off those high walls ten minutes ago. It doesn’t really make him feel any better when his body tumbled down tons of jagged rocks. But he was able to fully stand up, rubbed part of his body that was hurt and looked about his surroundings. There’s no doubt he was quite deep underground...besides not analyzing how deep. One thing he knows for sure is that it’s going to be impossible finding his way out of here when it’s this dark. He looked at his PAK and sighs. He just hopes it still works. He focuses on his PAK, thinking of what he wants it to activate, until it started glowing. The electricity passed unto the tube and then unto his bowl. A light from the button of the bowl flickered until it faint lit up, giving the bowl a soft aquatic-like glow.

“Yes!” He whispered to himself. It was not as strong as it was suppose to, possibly due to how damaged his PAK is from the Zapper. but it’s still good enough. He looked out through the tunnel that is a bit clearer to see. He took a deep breath.

“Guess I have no choice but to only follow this path.”

Although his body was still recovering a bit, he wasted no time in continuing onwards.

——————————————-

2K turns the lamp on, allowing to see the map the was laying on the table. He stretches in order to have his body fully wake up, along with cracking his fingers.

“Alright. No planning on trying to ambush them. If I’m going to recruit members for the Resistance, I’m gonna have to just retrieve back the stolen items from their base without them noticing. The big question is where their base is. I have explored the town multiple times and analyzed each sites. There has to be a hidden entrance around that area. Usually when I get there earlier, I tend to see them come out from the alley next to the hotdog stall.”

He drew a mark of that alley.

“So if that’s the case, there must be a hidden entrance. Either by the wall or ground of the alleyway. But that would be strange. Each side of the buildings are owned by the Hotdog and Vampire Zim. So it wouldn’t make sense for their base to be in either one of them. Not to mention that there’s barely anything on that alley except for piles of junk...”

He let the bottom of the marker he’s carrying to softly tap on his chin, trying to figure this mystery out.

“Hmm...I guess I won’t be able to figure this out unless I take a good look at that alley again. After all, I haven’t seen that alley since I first arrived in the underground town.”

He closes up his marker and puts it down on the table before turning off the lamp. He grabs his goggle, puts it on, and hops out of the stair in order to race downstairs. He did however slow down so he can sneak past the door that leads to the Elder’s room and soon after starts racing out of the base. The Meat, who was leaving his own room saw him, and hops over into the Elder’s room where he was seen meditating.

“Mmmph!”

The Elder’s eye squinted open,

“Ah, so he is...”

“Mmph!”

“Hmm....” he thought about it. But he close his eye shut again. “Eh. Let him be.”

“MMMF?!” The baloney Zim’s eyes widened in shock.

“It’s no use trying to lecture him, Meat. Besides, who knows. Maybe he might be unto something. Whether or not it works, we can just hope he learns something out of it.”

Meat frowns. He glances out.

“Though if you are still worried about the little guy, give him till the sun sets and you are free to search for him again. If not, you can continue your lookout.”

The Meat still felt uncertainty. But after a short while, he turns to the Resistance leader and nods.

———————————————-

2K grunted with each buildings he climbed and each risky leaps he made. But he eventually slid down a wall pipe to get to his destination: the Hotdog Alley. Yeah....he basically has started on naming alleys now after several days of being in this town. Makes him wonder why he didn’t do it earlier. Whatever. He landed on the ground, heaving for breath after the exercise he has given himself, but with his heart still beating fast in determination to fulfill his mission. Though...maybe it’ll be better to save up his energy for a short while and have a walk around finding the hidden entrance. After all, there’s no telling if the those inferior Zims will sneak up behind him. He needs to make a good dash if they do.

After gulping the required air his body needed, he continued on by walking about the alley. But really, all there is just piles of junks, piles of junks, piles of junks and, well, more piles of junks.

“Strange,” he told himself, “if there no hidden door here, why would the gangsters like to hang around here? The best will be collecting scraps in order to buy themselves food. Though...maybe the hidden door is hidden beneath these junks. But that wouldn’t make sense. Even if that was that case, it would take them a while on covering and on uncovering the entire pile. If they would want to be careful not to cover the entrance long enough for someone to see them....”

His small antennae twitched upwards in realization. He took notice of the smallest pile of junkthat was pretty much smaller than the smeet.

“....they would have to make it small enough to uncover.”

He glanced about, making sure he wasn’t spotted, and rushed over to the pile. He quickly threw any scraps off and brushing the remaining scraps and dirt until he saw a big wooden plank on the ground. He grasped unto the edge of it and let out a loud grunt of effort until he pushed it aside. Catching some breath, he looked and saw that the plank covered an underground entrance with crafted stairs descending downwards.

He stared at the entrance for a short while. He let out a grin.

“Bingo.”

——————————————-

A spark came from his PAK.

“Gah!” 2002 let out a short sound of pain before pressing his hand on his hip. Making a soft hiss and his teeth clenching, his pacing slowed while he looked at his PAK. He rest his hand on it, realizing now how really warm it felt.

“Ugh....my PAK. it’s overheating to the point that it’s draining my energy faster. Must be the part of the damage. Could it be that I can only light up my bowl for a short period of time? Ghh!”

He felt another spark on his PAK hit his back again, causing the light on his bowl to flicker out.

“Rrgh. Well that’s just great. I swear,” he squints, “when I find whoever put that stupid green device in this empty void, I will....”

His words died off when his eyes blinked up to notice something far off from the tunnel.

“Wait. Is that a light?”

He hesitated for a short moment, but continued onward, ignoring the slight fatigue in his bodyfrom using most of his energy on a nightlight. The cave started looking brighter and brighter that 2002 needed half cover his eyes due to how long he’s been in the dark tunnel. But he finally emerged out of it, entering what appears to be a much wider space. And he can hear....voices? Wait. There are people underground?

He couldn’t fight back the urge on shielding his eyes any longer and uncovered them. Once he looked at what was in front of him, he stood completely still, his eyes gazing in complete surprise. There aren’t just people underground. This extended underground area was big enough for a small town to settle here. Buildings that can contain at least three to four floors. And these people were even more Zims. They were each doing what typical citizens normally do. Each were seen opening up their shops or hotels, doing chores, or meeting up with others. And they appear to look happier than the Zims within the walls. The place where he was a slave for a single day.

They look like they are just doing...whatever they like-

_“You don’t have to work anymore. You are free to roam about this world and do whatever you like.”_

501’s words repeated in his mind, causing him to come into a full realization. All this time, he thought that the guard was making up about them, just as a way for him to stay outside the walls. After all, there no life outside the walls except several guards and a bunch of junks. At least....in the surface. This underground town. The underground town must be the Wasteland that eyepatch loser was talking about. And if this is the Wasteland....these Zims. There’s no mistaking it.

They are the Reject Zims.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof! Sorry it took a long while to finish this! School has been a pain with its midterms and all the crap going on.
> 
> I also felt like speeding up the pacing a bit since I noticed I was being too slow. Heheh...that what happens when you get too reeled into your writing. But next chapter should be more interesting this time, I apologize that it’s taking the boys a while to meet each other, but it will happen soon. 
> 
> I’m also feeling much better after the issue 49 release, so that’s a good thing too.


	6. Issue 5

The little smeet was already halfway down stairs. Despite it getting darker, he can already see a soft light down below, indicating that way down wasn’t as far as he expected. Once he went down the finals steps of stairs, he entered a room that seem quite small. In fact, by the crafted shelves around the walls, it appears to be a storage room, along with being a mix of the gangs’ bedroom, given that there were some cushions on the floor. Not enough though for all three though. It looks like each of them would have to take turns on sleeping on the floor for the night. The were also few wall torches in order to see the room better. 2K glanced about room’s appearance and huffed.  
“Dumb inferiors Zims. I can make a hidden underground base way better than this. Heh!”  
He starts walking across the room with a smirk,  
“They’re so stupid that they can’t even set up a-!”

His words were cut off when he stepped on a stone that ended up being a button and small holes up in between in his legs. But he notice the sound of it opening in time and leapt out of there before a spear shot out all the way to the ceiling. He stepped on another button in the process and with each steps triggered more and more spear traps, making him quickly dodge all of them in a panic,  
“AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! HOW! DID! THEY! MAKE! THESE! AHHHHH!”  
He finally leaps away and hugs one of the boulders tightly. The traps shot out the last amount of spears until the booby traps finally turned off......soon after one of the hole coughs up the last one in a weak aim.

The smeet remained hugging the boulder, his eyes huge and his small body trembling from being shook at the unexpected booby traps. His trembling soon after softens. His eyes traced about the room.  
“.....HAH!” He blurted out with a huge smile, “those dumb Zims couldn’t fool me! I knew there were booby traps in here!”  
He lets go of the boulder and drops to the ground, brushing dust off his invader uniform in confidence,  
“Good thing I knew. Otherwise I would have never dodged those noticeable traps. Now! To get the items!”

He went over to one of the shelves and halted by it, looking about the items on it.  
“Woah,” he looked at them quite impressed, “they really have stolen quite a lot. I don’t think I can take them all back by myself. And not to mention that they have already used some of them. Even so, i doubt I can take them all back today.”  
He then noticed something else on the shelf.  
“Hey! It’s the honey that they stole from that bee Zim yesterday! And what’s better is that they haven’t used it yet. Maybe I can take that back with me and give it back to him later. Then he would have to change his mind about me!”

Though something else crossed his mind as he was looking at the jar of honey. Given his small size, carrying that it back won’t be an easy task. Especially when he has to climb up there a bring it down. And who knows if he’ll carry it out before the gangs....

He shook the thought of his head.  
“Nope! No no!” He patted his cheek to completely knock that sense out, “I won’t get this out safely if I keep doubting myself. Think positive! You’re the best Zim there is!”  
Once he let that stick to his mind, he looked up, gazing directly at the honey. He took a deep breath in. He opens his PAK’s storage in order to get the rope out. He gets right on it.

——————————————————————————-  
Grumbling sounds can be heard from his squeedlyspooch, causing the fish Irken to hug his abdomen in soft irritation.  
“Ugh, yes I get it, body. I need snacks. You don’t need to remind me few times.”  
2002 can be seen still walking about the marketplace, having been only thirty minutes since he arrived at the Wasteland. Just few steps into the town and his body thinks this will be the perfect time to find food in order to satisfy his PAK’s decently stored battery. And he’s been spending the rest of this time, despite feeling exhausted from the journey over here, searching for something to eat. But this is ridiculous, where can he even find the food markets? He looks about when he notices two Zims chatting by the sidewalk. One Zim had only a single atennae and the other one had two pointy stumps on his head with long fangs.

Maybe he can ask them. He starts walking up to them while the fang one said,  
“Yes, I know you need a place to stay. But I’m telling you, all the rooms in the inn are full right now and it will take a while to build a new one.”  
“But I don’t understand,” the single antennae Zim frowned, “why can’t I just-?”  
“Excuse me?”  
The two Zims glanced at 2002 in curiosity.  
“What kind of Zim says ‘excuse me’?” The atennae one’s eyebrow raised in confusion.  
But 2002 ignored his question and continued by asking,  
“Do any of you know where I can find the food market?”

“Hm,” the fang one softly tilted his head, “makes sense why I never see a fish scuba diver around here. Yes, if you pass by us and keep walking, the food areapp is right there.”  
2002 looks out,  
“Oh right!”  
He glanced at them,  
“Thanks.”  
He sets off. The Zims gazed out at him with the fang one’s eyes furrowing.  
“Hm. What a strange Zim. Any how, as I was saying...”

2002 didn’t bother hearing their conversation the further he got and instead continued focusing on finding the marketplace. Luckily, it didn’t even take him that long to find two market stalls. Nearby looked to what appears to be a sandwich stall. Seems to be worth a try. He walks up to a Zim wearing a typical white clerk hat as he happily gives someone a sandwich with the customer walking off looking kind of unsatisfied. But he ignored his facial expression as he approaches the front stall. The stall clerk notices his arrival and smiles,  
“Ah! Another customer! Welcome to Zim’s Scrapwiches! How can I help you?”

“Ah yes,” 2002 smiles, “I was wondering if you had any-“  
His smiles fade.  
“Wait, what did you say?”  
“Heheheh! I’m guessing that bowl of yours makes it harder to hear? I said welcome to Zim’s Scrapwiches! How can I help you?”  
2002 made a pause for a short while and grew into confusion.  
“...Scrapwiches? What are those?”  
“Glad you asked my fellow Zim customer! It’s nothing more than the finest sandwich the multiverse would ever see!”  
He digs underneath the stall and pulls out a sandwich, but filled with scraps on it.

“Tadah! It may look like an ordinary sandwich. But something even more. A scrap sandwich! It taste so good that they are selling like mad!”  
“But....who would want to eat scraps? Do you have anything better?”  
“Better?! Nothing is better than than the great Zim’s Scrapwiches! Why else are they selling out like mad? That’s possibly because you’re not even giving it a chance!”  
2002 continued to look down at the “food” uncomfortably.  
“Uh....right. I’ll just uh...try something else.”  
He starts walking over to the next stall while the Scrapwich Zim looked out. He however did not seem to be calling out for him. He slumped his arms on the stall and seems to be waiting for something.

Meanwhile, 2002 walks over to what appears to be a hotdog stand as a picture of a hotdog can be seen on the sign, along with the name “Zim’s Edible Salvage”. And look at that! No mentions of scraps! It goes to show never to trust someone that says their food is better than others. He sees what appears to be a Zim that looks like a hotdog, who is shown taking out a bread and neatly putting it on the stall. 2002 was getting close to him as he calls out,  
“Hi, yes! Excuse me, I saw your sign and I was wondering if you have an-“

He halted when he suddenly sees the hotdog Zim starts covering his mouth and lets out a massive air blow. A hotdog suddenly shoots out from the from the top of his head as a result and lands on the bread. Once done, he happily picks it up and gazed at his making until he notices 2002 standing there.  
“Oh, hello!” The Hotdog Zim let out a smile, “Would like to buy a hotdog? It’s 60 scraps per Zim!”  
The fish Zim stood stiff. His face having a shook and uncomfortable expression.

Meanwhile, the Scrapwich Zim remained waiting by the stall waiting.  
“3...2...1-“  
His antennaes twitched he heard someone come over and saw it was the same costumer that left earlier.  
“Ah!” He smiles at him, “Welcome back! What did you think of the other stall, huh? Pretty neat!”  
At this point, 2002 just didn’t want to talk about it. Despite his discomfort at what he just saw, he responded with,  
“How much is the Scrapwich?”  
“Glad you asked! It’s 30 scraps per Zim!”

“Scraps?”  
“Yeah. They work like money. You would have to collect them in the surface, which that can be a difficult task with all the guards around.”  
2002 made a pause.  
“And...there isn’t any other way to obtain food? I mean, I just fell into this town and I have nowhere to settle at. The best way to stay awake is to consume food.”  
The clerk grew unamused.  
“So you don’t have any scraps.”  
“No-“  
“Then I can’t lend it to you. You will have to collect it.”  
“What?”  
“If you don’t have scraps, you don’t get the Scrapwich.”

“But...” 2002 narrowed, “that doesn’t make any sense. You have scraps. Yet you’re using them to make them out of food. How are you making enough money out of this?”  
“I split the scraps so I can save them for shelters while the rest goes for the Scrapwich. Does that make anymore sense?”  
“I mean. Yes. But-“  
“Then move along ahead, there should be more customers coming soon.”  
“But wait,” 2002 continued, “where should I even sleep at in order to charge my PAK? If I can’t have food, then I would have to-“  
“There’s no such thing as free inns. Now go.”  
“But-“  
“No more ‘But’,” he grew impatient and pointed out, “Go. And don’t come back till you have scraps.”  
2002 stiffened by the urgent tone in his voice. He glanced about and took one last glance at him. He walks off. With the Scrapwich Zim satisfied, he continued his work on making more of those sandwiches.

He is walking further away from the stall, with many thoughts coming to his mind. He doesn’t understand. What has he done wrong? Why is it that all the alternate version of himself always treat him and the others lowly? If all the Zims are really himself, shouldn’t they be helping each other out? Figure out a way to get back to their own timeline so they can go back to conquering the Urth? Could it be...that he’s the only one that’s wondering about this?  
He makes a complete halt, his frowned eyes gazing at the ground. His eyes furrowed.

No. There has to be another way out of here. As far as he knows, he might be the only Zim that can figure this out. He can’t just be stuck on this world for the rest of his life. Not to mention that his servant can still be out there. And there are plenty of scraps he can use to fix the ship in the surface. But In order to do these followings, he cannot do this when his PAK is currently lacking energy. One climb attempt and there’s a likely chance he will pass out of exhaustion in the process and only get himself more injured. And it won’t be good passing the time to charge his energy just by sleeping.

His expression grew serious. He looked back at the stall while the clerk was finishing up making a Scrapwich and storing it in a box next to him. He can see there’s an alley next to the stall.

There was no use following the rules anymore if these Zims will continue to mistreat him. If he’s going to find his Gir and get back home, he has no choice but to break the rules.

———————————————————————————————————

2K was seen using a rope to lower the honey into the ground. It was nicely tied up in order for it not to slip. His small arms were shaky and he was sweating about, both by how much the weight of the honey jar was straining his infant body and the stress on making sure the rope doesn’t slip off his hands.  
“Come on, I got this!” He said to himself while his feet tried to stay intact with the surface of the shelf, “Steady....steady...”

He hands nearly slipped, but after minutes and minutes of lowering it, the jar was neatly placed on the ground with no scratches whatsoever. The smeet let out a huge sigh of happy relief, wiping the sweat off his forehead.  
“Phew! I knew I got this!”  
He noticed a long stick laying against a wall near the shelf that he can use to slide down from the tall shelf. Once he was safely on the ground, he went over and untie the rope from the jar, rolling it up and putting it away.  
“Alright, honey jar,” he smiles as he gets his hands on it, “let’s take you back to your real owner so he can see how great I really am!”

He picked it up, letting out a grunt of surprise by heavy it was. Despite nearly loosing his grip on it, he let the jar press in between his chest and abdomen, his back arching backwards to let his body support the weight. He let out a breath and took a moment to get use to the weight,  
“Alright, heh, yeah. See? I got this, I got this. And I should really stop talking to myself-ok! Time to move out of here!”  
He ignored the heavy weight of the jar, walking fast paced out of the room and climbing upstairs. Going upstairs was the most difficult part, as there were many times he let out a yelp every time he almost fell back and pummeled down on the stairs. It even got to the point where he felt like he needed to put the jar down and rest for a moment. But he shouldn’t, as he know the high risk that will happen if he does. After all the grunts of efforts and talking to himself as a way of encouraging himself, he saw a light that led him to emerge from the entrance. He was sweating, but was smiling by his next step of success.  
“Yes! I knew I got this! And not a single stupid version of me has spotted me!”

His antennae twitched as he was still smiling in determination. He softly turned to his right side to see the gang standing there in a blank daze, looking at the smeet they saw yesterday holding the jar they stole. 2K still wore a determined face, but with a hidden uncomfortable expression. He picks up the jar. He starts to casually walk off, trying to pretend they didn’t see anything suspicious. The gang stared off at smeet walking away until the Sheriff was able to process a bit of it and bump his elbow against Sword Cat.

“Hey. Isn’t that...?”  
“Yeah it’s that baby that keeps ambushing us...” Sword Cat responded. He shrugs,  
“Well just as long as he’s not attacking us, we should be good. As long as we have our stuff.”  
There was silence.  
“...uh...Sword Cat, I think he just sneaked into our base and took the honey,” Ninja responded.  
The cat blinked in realization,  
“Oh....so he did...”  
There was another longer silence.

“......AFTER HIM!” Sword Cat pulled out his sword, making the gang start chasing after him. As soon as 2K noticed them start to chase him, his eyes went huge and he felt his body go into full adrenaline as his walk turned into a sprint. He held the jar very dearly, doing his best to ignore how much the weight was tiring him out. He dodged many pile that were in his way, even kicking one of the piles and making them tumble as a distraction. It worked for a second when they stopped carefully and stepped pass it. But with the smeet’s run being slower by the weight of the jar, it didn’t make much of a difference.  
“Get back here, you fragile smeet! Your can’t run that far when your carrying that jar!” The cat called out.

2K huffed and made a quick glare at them,  
“Nu-uh! If anything, you fakers are loosing track of me!”  
“You won’t believe it anymore once we catch you!”  
“Ha! Heh...like that’ll ever happen!”  
2K sees a ladder near the exit of an alley and starts climbing it. Given he has always been using a rope to climb up, he didn’t have to much trouble climbing with only one hand and two feet. The only difficulty was making sure the jar didn’t fall out of his hand. He gritted his teeth with every climb he took as the gangs started to catch up.

———————————————————-

The Scrapwich Zim was happily humming to himself, having sold two more of his food already after 2002 left as he starts making more. What he did not notice was that 2002 have came back and that he went to the opposite side of the stall without him noticing. He slips in by the alley and peeks out, looking directly by every movement he made. He waited till he saw another customer approach the stall, with the worker turning to his customer in satisfaction.  
“Ah, Turtle Shell! Great to see you again!” He moved away from the scrapwich storage in order to interact with his customer, “what are you feeling like having today?”

Ok, now is his chance. He crawls out of the alley and starts sneak over to the storage.  
“Uh...isn’t Scrapwich the only thing you have?” The customer asked.  
2002 kept glancing to make sure he was looking away as he approaches the storage.  
“Oh, Pfft! Why Ofcourse! Not like I ever said there were options!”  
His hand steadily reaches out for one of the sandwiches in the storage.  
“But you just said-“  
“Right right right. Look...”

2002 suddenly sees the worker’s hand reach out, causing some bubbles to blow out of his mouth in panic, but tried not to scream, immediately backing away before his hand touched his as he watched the hand dig into the storage and pull one out. He luckily did not turn his head as he was doing so.  
“Forget what I said earlier. After all, this is the best of them all!”  
“Heh...you can say that again.” the customer said as 2002 took a moment to stop his body from stiffening after that close call and looked back at the storage. He took a deep breath and starts reaching his hand out for the storage again.

——————————————————————-

2K gasped for breath again the moment he made it to the building. He panted for few moments and started running over to the side of it. He halted by the ledge where he can see the citizen walking below, with two food stalls in between the building he was standing. He quickly turned to hear the gangs now starting to climb the ladder. If he was fully going to get away from them, swinging to another building from the other side of the street would be his only way. He quickly took the rope out his PAK and made a knot hole. He fully stands up and lookS out to find the best spot to throw it at until he saw a hook by the center of the building.

And once he found his target, he twirled his rope around and threw it as much as he could. With pure luck, it latched unto it. This cause the smeet to let out another smile.  
“Yes!”  
All he needs to do now is to just hang onto the jar as good as he can while swinging to the other side of the building. Then his mission will be a full success.

———————————————————————

His hand dug unto the storage, feeling one of the scrapwiches. He gripped unto it, making sure it wouldn't slip out of his hand and pulled it out. He gazed in awe, coming to a realization that his attempt to get it actually worked. But he knew it wasn’t over yet. He glanced at the Scrapwich Zim still talking to a customer. He very steadily crawled out of the stall and stood up. He casually walked away from the stall at first, the food being held close to his chest. But the further he got, the more he kept running. And the more he kept running, the more he smiled in realization that he actually succeeded. He really succeeded!

Sure he felt kind of guilty about stealing a sandwich. Can Zims be guilty of that? Who knows. Who cares. If anything, he doesn’t even care about the Zims anymore after how much they treated him. Why would he? He was just one step forward into finding his way out of this place.

———————————————————————

“Hey!”  
2K’s antennae twitches by that same Irken’s voice and turned to see that he and the others have managed to get on top of the building too.  
“Stop where you are! Give us back that honey or....”  
“Or what?” He let one fist press against his hip impatiently.  
“Or....or we will steal your goggles!”  
“My goggles?” He said unamused.  
“Uh, yeah! I’m sure you always wear them for a good a reason.”  
“Heh!” He smiles, “there’s many cool facts about me that you’ll never know! And seriously? Stealing my goggles? Can’t think of anything better?”  
“Rrrrrgh Ofcourse stealing your goggles is important!”

The cat then blinked and pondered about something.  
“Now thinking about it,” 2K rolled his eyes while he kept talking as he turned around and took a grip on the rope, “it might make sense you need your goggles in order t-“  
The moment Sword Cat looked back, the smeet jumped out of the building while holding the jar with his arm and his hand still gripping on the rope.  
Sword Cat’s eyes went huge.  
“Wh-ah-HEY?!” He shouted out in anger, “I WAS NOT FINISHED!”

“Pfft! You’re right!” 2K looks back and smiles, “like I’ll ever listen to a loser like you!”  
His braces his body for when the swinging begins.  
“I have WON! And that proves that I don’t need anybody, ANYBODY to be my p-!”  
The moment he started to swing, the weight of jar was enough to make him loose his gripping on the rope. His hand slips off. His face went blank at the realization.

“....oh shoot.”

——————————————————————————

2002 was running further away from the stall when he suddenly hears what appears to be a scream. But not a regular Zim-like scream. His running slowed and looked about in confusion.  
“Huh. That’s funny. Why is there a different version of me that sounds like a-“  
The moment he looked up, he saw something or someone fly towards him screaming until a smeet with an invader uniform and goggle smacked face first onto his bowl and covering the entirety of 2002’s sight. The hit, along with the scuba diver screaming out and back away in horror, caused him to loose balance and tumble down on the ground, knocking some thing nearby and spilling the sandwich he stole. The honey 2K was carrying also fell out of his hand the moment the fish Irken fell. It falls on the ground and starts rolling away.

The citizens flinched by the sound and looked over to see what has happened. The Scrapwich Zim also heard something going on out there. He turns to the customer,  
“That should be enough,” he quickly collects the scraps, “enjoy.”  
He looks out and goes over to see what is going on. The gangs meanwhile look downwards from the building. The Cat Zim huffed.  
“Hm. I knew a baby would never get away from us. Let’s get back what is ours.”  
The gangs nodded and they started to make their way down the building.

With 2002 gaining back his consciousness, he turned, making the smeet fall off of his bowl. The first thing he sees is a honey jar rolling into the alleyway until it falls into a broken sewage opening. His face then turns to see an unconscious baby Irken on the ground. It took him a moment to realize this and he quickly sat up. Wait, did he actually just knocked out a baby version of himself? Where the heck did he come from? Darn out of all places, he has to accidentally knock out a baby while on the run!  
“Woah! Hey,” he gently reached out his hand and rested it on the shoulder before softly shaking him. A tiny grunt was heard.  
“Hey, are you ok-?”  
The smeet’s arm slaps him away as a defensive reflex, catching 2002 by complete surprise. The small Irken child moved until he manages to wake up, get up, and shake himself fully awake. He looks about the ground, his small antennae shooting upward by his growing worry.  
“Honey...” he pats about the ground as he kept searching, “no no no, the honey was right here! Dookie, where is the honey?!”  
“Uh,” 2002 grew confused at first, “honey?”  
He then remembered something.  
“Wait. You mean-“

“You! Baby!” 2K flinched and stiffened for a moment, turning his head to look out where the voice came from. 2002 couldn’t help but look out where three Zims were passing by the crowd, one of them carrying about the sword.  
“Where’s our honey?!”  
“Ugh, would you give me a second?!” 2K shouted as he started searching more frantically.  
2002 processed what was happening. Wait...did they just say ‘their’ honey? Would that mean this kid was also-

“Hey!”  
2002 harshly flinched to look over and see the Scrapwich Zim peek out from the crowds and angrily look at him.  
“What are you doing?! You didn’t pay for that!”  
“Dookie,” the fish Irken said in fear as he was about to launch over and get the sandwich.  
“You better tell us where your honey is or we will make you say it, you little thief!” One of the three gangs said as 2002 turned to see them storming over to the baby.

“Well if I DID have it, I would tell you,” 2K angrily looked at them and stood up, “but your stupid chattering is what made me want to swing off the building and cause me to slip off the rope!”  
 _Run_ , 2002 thought.  
“Please,” Sword Cat rolled his eyes as he kept walking towards him, “you’re only saying that cause you can’t admit you lost again.”  
 _Run, you idiot!_  
“I did NOT loose,” the smeet blurted out, “my victory was only getting started! It’s not over in the slightest!”  
 _Run_!

“Whatever,” the cat grew impatient, “if you’re not going to tell us where the honey is, we’ll make you.”  
Much to 2002’s dismay, instead of running, 2K took his battle stance, ready to fight them. 2002 glanced at the sandwich lying on the ground. Then at the baby Irken. He glanced at both few times. As much as he wanted to take his sandwich, he couldn’t bear it.  
“Oh for the love of....”  
Before 2K can make a move, he suddenly felt a hand grab his arm and grab him out of the ground,  
“Wha-HEY!”

2002 made sure he was holding onto him well, especially given the fact that the smaller irken was now attempting to struggle out of his arm, and soon after started running off, moving past the crown.  
The gangs stiffened in surprise at what they saw.  
“Who the heck is that? I never seen him around,” the cowboy said.  
“Does it even matter right now?!” Sword Cat argued, “they’re getting away!”  
“Oh. Right.”  
And with that, they continued charging forward.

Meanwhile, 2002 continued to sprint across the pathway, with the citizens watching in confusion. 2K can be seen trying his best to struggle out of his wrapped arm.  
“Rgh! Get! Off me! Nobody interrupts Zim’s fight except me!”  
His teeth clenched as his legs flailed wildly to squeeze out, but it was no good.  
“Seriously, what’s your problem?! I had them back there! I swear that I don’t have anything on me! If you don’t let go of me, I’ll punch your gut SO hard that you’ll-!”

“Will you calm down?” 2002 told him as he kept running, “I just rescued you!”  
“Rescued me?!” 2K continued to yap, “more like your kidnapping me! Better yet, Zimnappin-!”  
“You there!” The voice of one of the gangs can be heard as they started picking up speed, “What do you think you’re doing?! give us back that thief!”  
“Thief?” 2002 gave a confused expression.  
“Are you part of that Resistance too?!”  
“Resistance?” He became more confused. He glanced at the smeet.

“What on Irk is he talking about?”  
2K made a quick irritated sigh,  
“Ok. I know. My life right now looks like a wild story and yet even so, it’s none of your business. Now will you let go of me alre-AH!”  
A shuriken flies past the front of 2K’s face, barely missing him. 2002 soon after noticed the Ninja Zim throwing these ninja star weapons at them multiple time, reacting this by dodging every single one of them by every close calls.

“Gh!” The fish Irken looks straight forward, “well whoever you are or what these guys want from you, it looks like we’re on the same boat. Hang on!”  
2K’s body drooped, his face giving of an unsatisfied expression by the result of the runner rejecting his demand,  
“....Figures.”  
As 2002 was running, he sees a huge piles of scraps nearby the the next alley. He has an idea.

He makes a sharp turn to the alley and as he does so, he let his leg swing a kick hard onto the pile enough to crumble. He runs into the alley in time before the pile fully tumbled down, blocking the the entrance of the alley and making the gangs halt by the sudden fall. Sword Cat growled,  
“You think you can block us just by those things, huh? Climb up, Zims!”  
They followed his orders and climbed their way to the top. But once they got to the top and looked at the alley, they realized it wasn’t a dead end and the runner or the smeet are nowhere to be found. The alley seems to split into two pathways.

Sword Cat squinted, glaring at the paths. He turned to the gangs.  
“Alright, split up! They could have chosen either one of them.”  
The both nodded. The cat and the ninja turned right while the cowboy turned left.

—————————————————-

Sheriff ran straight through the alley until he got to a dead end of the left pathway. He looked about, finding nothing but piles of scraps until his eyes locked into a ladder that leads to the top of a building. He squinted, hacking and spitting his saliva. He rushes over, climbs the ladder, and leaves the dead end of the alley empty. Behind one of the piles, 2002 peeks out and watches the Sheriff completely disappear at the top of the building, thinking that they must have climbed and ran off the same way he did. He lets out a sigh of relief,  
“Good. We should be safe.”  
“Um. Hello,” 2K said, “you’re still holding unto me.”  
“Oh right,” 2002 looked at the irritated smeet and puts him down, “here you go.”  
“Finally!” He crosses his arms, “Yeesh, what was even that for?! I would have gotten the honey back in time if you didn’t snatch me away like that!”

“What was I suppose to do?” 2002 narrowed, “you weren’t running away! They could have beat you to a pulp if you tried to fight them. Heck, not even I could have fought them by myself!”  
“Oh don’t even try to pity me.”  
“Pity you?”  
“I saw you kick that huge pile of scraps hard enough to topple! If you could do that, you could have obviously beat them easily!”

“Wh..I don-what are you talking about?!” He argues back at him, “I didn’t fight them because I pity you! Why would I even pity you?!”  
2K made a pause. He raised his eyebrow.  
“You’re...not lying, right?”  
“No! Why would I?”  
2K’s anger and irritation relaxed a bit, giving just a soft confused gaze at him.  
“You might be the weirdest Zim I have met so far. Now thinking about it, I never seen a fish hybrid Zim walking about this town. You must be new here, aren’t you?”

2002’s irritation soften,  
“Well, uh. You can sort of say that. I just arrived here an hour or two ago.”  
“Hm....” he gave a moment of curious gazing towards the newcomer, but then turned away.  
“Well I shouldn’t really care who you are other than being someone who snatches someone away out of the blue. Seriously. Next time you decide to ‘save’ someone, you should ask permission first. Cause no Zim would ever need help from someone else, including me! because I can save myself!”

2002 gave a confused and softly annoyed look towards him.  
“...Uh. Right. I’ll...do that, I guess.”  
“Good. Now I must be on my way,” he starts walking off, “that honey jar that I lost is who knows where and I’m gonna have to find it before those thugs find it first.”  
2002’s memory clicked back to what he saw after he commented that.  
“Wait. I think I know where it is.”

2K completely halted and made a beat of a pause before turning to him.  
“Wait, you do?”  
“After you bumped into me, I saw that honey jar roll into that sewer in an alley.”  
“Which alley?”  
“Uh....I don’t know-“  
“What was next to the alley?”  
“Uh...I think it was next to that hotdog stand? But it’s hard to recall.”

The smaller Zim gazed at him suspiciously.  
“How do you know if your telling the truth?”  
“What?”  
“Look. I barely even know you. And the only thing I’ll ever remember about you is bumping into you and shortly after snatching me away. If it’s true of what you’re saying that you are brand new in this town and you’re not one of those inferior Zims, then maybe I can trust you and do this mission by myself.”  
“Well...I guess it make sense.”  
“So,” 2K fully turns to him, “to make sure you are not leading me into a trap, you’re gonna come with me.”  
His eyes widened,  
“C..come with you?”

“Exactly. I may look stupid, but trust me when I say that I am smarter than any other Zims. And know that I won’t fall into a trap just because some stranger tricked me. You either accept this mission or I’ll force you to however I can.”  
2002 stiffens. Woah, this kid is really taking this seriously. But he really can’t blame him. After all, those Zims that chased him said he was a thief. And given that he did steal it from them, he’s possibly doing it because he’s trying to survive this world. After all, 2002 did attempt to steal a sandwich.

2002 relaxed and let out a sigh.  
“Alright. I’ll help you get the honey jar back. But on one condition.”  
“One condition?” 2K asked curiously.  
“You are going to have to pay me back for that sandwich. I was trying to steal it until you bumped into me and blew my cover. I had to sacrifice it in order to save you. So you need to return the favor by giving me food one way or another. And once that’s done, we can go our separate ways.”

He gazed at the fish hybrid and rubbed his chin to think about it. With few seconds of humming to himself, his eyes traced back to him. He fully turn to him and reaches his hand out.  
“Ok. It’s a deal.”  
2002 nodded and reaches his hand out too in order to shake hands. He was quite surprised that despite the smeet’s hand looking small and fragile, it has a strong grip. Maybe he has more in him than what he expects. He just can’t describe what it is.  
“So,” 2002 replied, “I’m guessing that everybody calls you by....”

He looks at the smeet’s number on his collar.  
“...2000?”  
“2000?” the small one strangely seemed offended, “nah! I’m not called by that anymore. Only slaves get called by their number. It would be nice if you would call me by my real name. But given everybody having the same name, you can just call me by 2K.”  
“2K...Wait. You all can have nicknames?”  
“Well duh!” He lets go of his hand, “almost every Zim here has a nickname! I mean you should have one yourself.”

“Uh...no I don’t. I just been called by 2002. But even so, I don’t like being called by anything other than Zim.”  
“Hmph!” He pressed his fists against his hips, “Well you have to have a nickname whether you like it or not! And if you prefer not make your own name, than I can give you one! Now let’s see...” he pondered, “What will be fitting for you...”

He hummed to himself, tapping his foot, as he thought about this. His antennae shot up and he smiled,  
“I know! 2K2!”  
The other Irken gazed at him for a short while before his eyebrows furrowed.  
“Uh...2K2?”  
“Yeah! I mean you’re called 2002, right? And given your two numbers away from mine, it should fit right in!”  
“Er. That would just be way too confusing to tell us apart. Wouldn't it be quite a tongue twister for some people?”  
The baby Irken gave a frustrated sigh,  
“Fine, I’ll think about something else.”  
He pondered again.  
“Got it! Scuba!”  
“What?” His confusion got mixed with feeling of offense, “No, I’m not gonna be called that. That’s just ridiculous.”

“Alright, then it’s Pirahnha.”  
“No.”  
“Sharkie?”  
“No.”  
“Aquarium.”  
“Ok seriously,” 2002 crossed his arms, starting to get irritated again, “you better stop naming me things based on my appearance. I mean, how would you like it if someone started naming you something that relates to your appearance??”  
2K hesitated, his face going blank. For a moment, he could have sworn his eyebrows softly frown. But it quickly faded away before he can ask him.

“Eh I guess you’re right about that,” he shrugs, “but that would mean you’re gonna make it a lot harder for me to find the perfect name for you. So I’ll just keep calling you different names as we go along with this mission until you agree with one. Otherwise, I’ll never get the honey on time.”  
2K looks out from the alleyway.  
“Now then. You stated that the honey jar went inside the sewer of Hotdog Alley, right? If that so, it looks like we’re going to have to walk all the way back over to where we bumped into each other and get inside the sewer from there-“

“What? No!” 2002 narrowed, “that would be an insane idea!”  
“Excuse me?” 2K sharply turned to him.  
“As far as we know, that Sandwich Zim caught me red handed and his stall is right nearby there. Not to mention those three Zims could be wandering about there thinking that we might come back.”  
“Well that’s fine,” the smeet responded, “we can just fight them off! They’re not a big deal.”  
“To you it may seem that way. But what if they may have something more in store than what we expect? What if they have some sort of technique that were not prepared on avoiding?”  
“Ofcourse we are prepared!” 2K argues, “after all, we are the same exact person! And because we are, we can make a technique that is even better than-“

“They are alternate versions of ourselves,” he pointed out.  
This time, the younger Zim fell quiet and was actually listening.  
“We may be the same person, but that doesn’t mean we have the same exact thoughts. We are only two different people who are barely a match towards four different other people. Even if we do beat them, do you think we have any stamina left in us to travel through the sewers, get the honey, and climb out safely? If this is going to be successful, we need to use our amazing minds more by figuring out a better cautious way on getting your item.”

2K showed to have an impressed expression on his face. He never actually really thought of developing a more cautious plan before. He just goes straight on to his goal and hope for the best. After all, why should he ever doubt his plan?  
“Wow. Uh. Ok. Guess I really never really thought about that before.”  
The smeet starts to brainstorm another plan. He looks at a sewer nearby and it took several seconds for it to click into his mind.  
“Wait...I GOT IT!”  
2002 flinched by his sudden energetic outburst as he watched him quickly pull out a blank rolled up paper and unroll it on the ground. He takes out a marker and pulls out the tip.  
“Alright Scooter, here’s the plan! As of right now, we are at the...uh...Choice Alley!”  
He starts drawing out the map.  
“We came to the dead end by turning left, and entered the alley when turning right. the Hotdog Alley is on the right, next to the Hotdog stall on the way back. So, all we have to do is just retrace our steps. But this time, we do it by going inside the sewers. That way, those inferior Zims can’t find us! Sounds like a good idea?”  
2002 stared at the drawn out map amazed.

“Uh...hey, Sam. Didn’t you listen to what I said?”  
He blinks away on his gaze towards the map and back at 2K.  
“Right, right sorry. It’s just...well. You seem to know this place a lot. How long have you been here?”  
2K shrugs,  
“Not that long. Only a week.”  
“A week?” He said in complete surprise.

“Yep!” The smaller one lets us out a smile, “now come on! We shouldn’t waste any time! Let’s get that sewer door thingy open and retrieve my item!”  
He puts the map and marker back into his PAK and heads over to it. 2002 gazes at him. Knowing him for a very short while, he may probably be the most annoying Zim he has ever encountered. But at the same time, the most interesting one. How was he able to know his way all around the town in just a single week? And his outburst of confidence. He may be also the most positive Zim he ever met as well. Maybe too positive....and reckless....and chattery.

Still, he can’t help but admire the little guy. He must be five years or younger in Irken years and he was able to successfully steal something from three Zims and map out locations like it’s no big deal. Then again, maybe he was once full grown Irken and something happened that turned him into a baby. That could be why he’s so skillful. Though it won’t explain why he himself has never been so good at navigating-  
“Hey!” 2K looks at him impatiently, “are you coming or what?!”  
He blinks out of his thoughts.  
“Huh? Oh, right! Coming.”

He guess he’ll learn more about him as they go about this “mission” as he calls it. 2002 goes over to 2K so he can help him get the sewer entrance open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry my writing skill is lacking here. I’m getting kind of distracted with this whole virus situation going on. Hopefully next chapter will be better. -_-


	7. Issue 6

2002 cringed and shuddered with each time he crawled through the sewage. The cold water was just way too filthy to refill his head bowl. And to make it worse, it was getting all over his suit. Why did he agree to this deal again?

“Hey,” 2K, who was the one leading, looked back at him in annoyance, “will you stop whimpering about it like a puppy? It could be a lot worse. We could have been crawling about through acid or something poisonous.”

He blinked over to 2K in surprise,

“Was I really whimpering?”

“Well yeah. Since we entered the sewer!”

“Oh...yeah,” he looks down in embarrassment, “sorry.”

“You really do say sorry a lot.”

“Just keep going.”

2K gazed at him in soft confusion. But he looked forward and continued onward, with 2002 still following him from behind. They come over to two pathways and 2K stops and looks at each one of them.

“Hm. Let’s turn left here. That should lead us towards the marketplace.”

He took the direction and the Fish Irken followed along with his direction without any complaint. After all, if there’s anybody here who can be the best at taking direction, he would have to rely it on the baby. He still can’t believe it though. He’s letting a baby be the leader here?

If anything, he should be the one in charge. At the same time though, if he tried to lead just to show off, he would just humiliate himself. And that’s the last thing he would want the smeet to notice.

“Did you work at Foodcourtia in your timeline?”

2002 was surprised when he suddenly asked him this.

“Uh...yes? Why?”

“Just curious. You seem to get really squeamish when it comes to filthy stuff.”

“I mean,” he shrugs, “Foodcourtia was sort of responsible for it. But when I discovered germs on Urth...well...” he glanced away uncomfortably.

“Well fortunately, not for me!” 2K proudly replied, “germs are way too small for me to fear! Heck! I can take on Foodcourtia again just to show that Sizz Lor who’s boss! Not even it’s toilets!”

2002 looked at 2K by his last sentence,

“You didn’t like those toilets, didn’t you.”

“Well I almost got eaten to death by this one monster in the toilet. But hey, I’m still alive! And thanks to that, I learned never to be nearby toilets ever again!”

So in his timeline, he became afraid of toilets. Go figures.

“I wonder though,” 2K continued, “is your fear of dirty stuff the reason why you got your thing?” 

“Uh. No. It’s a dumb story.”

“Come on, I’m sure it not that bad! After all, we can be traveling here for quite a while.”

“Mmmph. Fine, but you have to tell me about your thing after I tell you.”

2K Ofcourse did not look happy about it. But after a groan he answered,

“Alright, Fine.”

“Ok. So...um. Do you remember when Ms. Bitters brought a piranha to class?”

“A piranha?” 2K’s eyebrow raises, “no? But she did bring a hamster into the classroom as a class pet. I tried using it in order to brainwash the humans but uh...it didn’t really go well as planned.”

“Huh. Guess someone else’s choice can also affect another person’s timeline. Anyways, I was always debating on how I can make myself unaffected by Urth’s water ever since I learned of how dangerous its polluted water was. So when Ms. Bitters brought a piranha to class, I got this idea that maybe I can extract part of its DNA and insert it into mine’s. It was going well,” he smiled, “I no longer needed to cover myself with paste or anything! And I decided to give thisto the Irken Empire as well so they can become more invincible like me!”

His smiles fades and embarrassingly looked away.

“But I started getting sick few days after injecting myself with the DNA. It kept getting worse throughout out the day. I started having harder time breathing in oxygen and....”

2K gazed at him, showing a hidden sense of empathy for the stranger.

“Yeesh. Should be at least glad you didn’t suffocate to death.”

“Heh,” he smiles warmly, “yeah. You can thank my Gir for that. If he wasn’t so obsessed with carrying that fish in the bowl around and reacted in time I could have been....”

His smile faded and turned into a soft frown. He sighs,

“Man, I wonder what’s taking that SIR unit to answer.”

2K’s face went blank for a moment. His eyebrows furrowed.

“you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?” 2002 looked at him in confusion.

The smeet opened his mouth to answer. But he let his mouth close shut again. He looks forward again and notices another pathway, causing him to have a sudden change to a positive mood.

“Oh! Let’s turn right here!”

2002 nodded and chooses the path he suggested. Once they changed pathway, 2K said,

“Alright. We should get to our destination soon. If you’re correct, the honey should be rightaround there! We just got to keep our head held high!”

2002 gazed at him, still impressed with his burst of determination. At the same time, he did questioned the change of his emotion. He seemed a bit quiet for a short while. No matter, there was something he almost forgot to remind him anyways.

“So 2000-“

“2K.”

“2K,” he corrected, “you still haven’t told me how you received your thing. I already told mine, so it makes sense.”

2K hesitated for a moment.

“Uh, yyeah!” He let out a smile again,“Makes sense! Well you see, there was this brilliant super weapon I found during my..well....journey you can say. But an accident occurred that caused it to blow up and turn me into this.”

“....Oh.”

“But hey, it’s totally fine!” He shrugs it off and looks away, “this side effect is only temporary. Sooner or later I’ll go back to my greater older appearance before you know it!”

“Huh. I see,” he responded, honestly feeling a bit jealous, “well you should be lucky. Most Zims like me are probably gonna stay the way they look...possibly for the rest of their life.”

“Yup! Though honestly,” 2K looks back at him “you really need to stop doubting yourself. It’s embarrassing.”

“Hey,” he narrowed, “there’s nothing wrong with doubting yourself every once in a while. It’s at least better than getting too positive enough to get yourself hurt.”

2K glared at him for a short while.

“Yeah. And it’s at least better than doubting to the point where you feel helpless for no apparent reason.”

2002 did not argue back this time. And it’s not because 2K won the argument. But more that the argument felt tied for a in a way he can’t comprehend.He sort of agrees with what he said and at the same time he doesn’t. Sure, confidence can be good. After all, he’s trying to be confident in order to find his Gir and escape this place. But too much confidence can lead to dangerous consequences.

They awkwardly stayed quiet for possibly a minute.

“You know,” 2K spoke again, “you still haven’t told me why you didn’t fight those Zims back there. Why didn’t you do it when you had the chance?”

“I mean,” he awkwardly shrug, “to tell the truth...uh....”

2K glanced back at him, waiting for the answer.

“Well, uh...” he looks back at the smeet, “have you ever beaten up a Zim before?”

“Why are you asking me this? Ofcourse I have beaten up a Zim before! Or I have at least tried.”

“Oh. Well, I was just wondering. Why do Zims need to beat each other up? I mean, there’s gladiatorial competition where Zims must beat up each other in order to be best. A-and don’t get me wrong, I want to show I’m the best out of all the Zims, but is fighting really necessary? Especially in a situation we’re in where we can be stuck in this world forever? Why aren’t anyone joining together in order to figure out a way out of here?”

He suddenly bumped unto 2K, in which he noticed he stopped so sudden. Before he can ask him what is wrong, he turned back to him, looking somewhat impressed by him.

“Huh. I guess there’s more potential in you than I thought. And you seem to have the same ideal as the Elder too.”

“The Elder?” 2002’s eyebrow raised in curiosity, “who’s the Elder?”

2K turned away for a moment and thought about it.

“Hm. Mr. Clean is soft, no doubt about it. But maybe that soft side of him along with his strength can be considered useful in the Resistance. I wonder what the Elder will think of him though. Then again, there’s no telling if I should trust him. As far as I know, he may be tricking me into trusting him so he can easily lead me into a trap. Still though...there’s something about him that’s....”

2002 blinked and grew unamused look.

“Er, I can still hear you, you know.”

2K flinched a bit, but quickly turned with a smile, changing the subject,

“Well we can’t just stay here forever. Let’s keep going!”

“Wait,” 2002 stopped him, “I need to know about this Resistance that you and those gangs have been talking about. Who’s the Elder?”

2K paused and sigh, turning to 2002,

“Ok tell you what. Prove to me that I can trust you. Then I can tell you more about the Resistance. Got it?”

2002 still felt confused, but he guess it makes more sense. He nods.

“Good. Now let’s go.”

2002 continued following him. Wondering how long it will take till they reached their destination. Seriously, the darkness and filth of the sewage was giving him the creep. He was at least glad he didn’t need to smell it though. Otherwise he would have thrown up for sure and the last thing he need is that smeet snapping at him. As minutes passed, 2002 started to notice that the water level was rising up to his entire hand and before he can mention it, 2K halted for a moment to look down at the water level, his hand lifting out of it while doing so.

“What’s happening to the water level?” The Irken Fish asked him.

“Not sure. The only chance it can be rising is because there’s a blockage in the sewer. And from it looks like, the water level must have started to rise about the time when we.....”

2K’s antennae shot up in realization.

“....This way!”

He was now crawling really fast. 2002 pretty much already had an idea as well with the way 2K started to keep going at a faster pace, as he caught up with him.

————————————————————

“What’s taking Sheriff so long? Seriously,” Sword Cat waited impatiently by the Scrapwich stall, “you think he would be back by now.”

“He’s probably not giving up on searching for them,” the Ninja Zim stared, “remember that Sheriff is not the type who would give up finding them that easily.”

“We didn’t give up!” The cat angrily said, “a REAL Zim doesn’t give up on anything! We’re just trying to figure out where they went.”

“Uh, in all honesty Sword Cat, all we have been doing is just waiting for Sheriff to come back.”

“Well then we’ll start figuring it out after Sheriff comes back-!”

“Here’s your sandwich,” the Scrapwich Zim said lending it out to him.

“Oh right,” Sword Cat said as he gave him some scraps in return, “thanks.”

The stall clerk just nods, obviously not in a good mood, as he continues making more of them.

“I swear,” he narrowed while he was doing this, “next time that scuba diver comes over again, I’ll make sure I never give him any of my sandwiches for as long as I’m in this world.”

“And you sure you don’t know anything about him,” the leader of the gangs asked him.

“No. It was my first time encountering him. But if he’s really brand new to this town, I can tell already he will cause major trouble here. Possibly why he got rejected to begin with. That pathetic Number 1. Rejecting us all here with barely any resources just so we can turn against each other. This town has always been filled with criminals like you three. The only reason I’m letting you be my customers to begin with is because you’re hunting the scuba diver down. You’re going to need all the nutrition you need in order to teach him a lesson.”

“Oh,” the ninja suddenly looked out, “it’s about time you came back.”

The two others also looked out and saw the cowboy walking over.

“Finally,” Sword Cat crossed his arm, “what took you so long? Do you know where they went?”

“Unfortunately,” Sheriff answered, “they run off quite good. Sniffed every track they might have gone and no luck.”

The two made a beat of a pause. The cat learned over to the ninja whispering,

“Can cowboys even sniff tracks?”

“I did however found something interesting,” Sheriff continued. “As I was retracing my steps, I noticed that there was one sewer entrance that had its bars popped out.”

“A sewer entrance was opened up?” The ninja asked, “where?”

“At the left pathway of that alley. The one where we last saw the baby and scuba diver at. By the dead end. By my guess, there’s a good chance that they might have....”

—————————

The water rose even more the closer they got, with it already reaching up to 2k’s arm, making him crawl slower and tilting his face up. 2002 already showed a bit of concern for him, giving that a smeet’s body may not withstand a water this cold.

“Hey,” he told him, “that water can possibly freeze you up. Do you want to just ride on my back-?”

“I’m fine!” He quickly answered, “no cold water is going to stop me from getting that honey! Besides, we’re almost there.”

The older Irken took a moment to look at how he was responding to the water. Although he was showing a bit of a discomforting look, he didn’t seem to be shivering. Maybe because only his arms and legs are in the water? He should sort of at least be glad this isn’t Earth’s water though. Burning from the water would be ten times worse then slowly freezing from it. Not like it would had effected 2002 thanks to his Earth fish DNA.

They soon after approached the narrower part of the sewer enough for 2002 to barely go through it. They can see something underwater.

“Roger,” 2K glances at him, “do you think you can go underwater and see what’s down there? After all, you seem to be a professional swimmer.”

Ofcourse, 2002 didn’t argue at that comment, knowing that if anyone would be good enough at looking underneath the water, it would be him. Hopefully he won’t regret it though. He lowered himself to the point where his abdomen rested on the floor, doing what he can to ignore the complete chilliness seeping onto his body and allowing himself to see what was down there. It was pretty dark, but from what he was seeing, the sewage appears to get narrow as it travels down a bit. Look to be a dead end from here.

But something else caught his attention. Within the narrow pathways, there what appear to bea....a round sponge? A bottle? No wait...

He popped his head out of the water, catching the smeet in a bit of a surprise, as he watched him quickly turn to him saying,

“I found the honey jar! It seems to be clogging the sewage pathway. That’s why the water level is rising.”

“Perfect!” He smiled, “just as I thought! Now try pulling the honey out of there.”

But 2002 just remained silent, looking worried on explaining it.

2K read his expressions and sighs while crossing his arms.

“Ok, what’s the bad news?”

“The jar is further down this narrower pathway. Even if I were to try and get it, my bowl would probably get stuck as a result.”

“Ugh. Thought so. Hmm....”

He turns to look down at the water and stared at it for a while. He starts to think of something.

“Hey Merlin, one last question. How narrow is the pathway exactly?”

“Uh, not sure,” 2002 pondered about, “pretty small to be exact. My Gir could have possibly fit in there, but I doubt he could-“

“Alright! I’m going in!”

“Good idea. I will wait for you h-WAIT WHAT?!?!”

Before he can even fully react, he watched the baby Irken launch off and disappear in the water.

“2K? 2k, where are you?!”

But he saw no response, only seeing bubbles come out of the surface along with ripples being felt on the water.

Is this kid INSANE?! Is he not aware with the fact that he’s risking his life? Over a stupid jar?! Well, sure, he needs it as part of survival, but loosing a jar wouldn’t be that crucial, given he’s not like those pathetic humans that die from hunger. He anxiously looked about the water. Should he go get him? Can he even reach him? It’s not like he has any options. There was no way he was going to just leave a Zim, let alone a baby, drown to death. Just before he was going to go back under, the small figure popped out of the water and gasped for breath. He was certain he heard him making shuddering sounds with each breath he took.

“2K!” He narrowed, “what in the world are you thinking?! You could have gotten yourself-“

“I can’t pull out the jar by myself,” he turns back to the fish hybrid, “I’m gonna need you to helpme get the honey out.”

“”Wh-wait,” 2002 gave out a huge confusion, “what are you talking about?!”

“Look,” he responded, “I tried pulling the jar out and it’s stuck. And doing it underwater doesn’t help other. So Ill go ahead and tie the end of the rope around my waist. I’ll swim over to the jar and cling unto it and once I do, you just pull the other end of the top so you can pull me out of there.”

The other Irken took a moment to process everything he has just said.

“I mean...it sounds like a good idea but. No, it’s too dangerous. Your body may not handle the cold. Just leave the jar here. I’m sure we can find something else to eat.”

“....huh?”

“Well you did steal that jar from those gangs so you can have something to eat. Look, I know what you did is bad, but I’m on the same boat too. So if we try getting a meal that’ll just risk our lives, it’s better to leave it be and find something else. We’re not humans, you know.”

2K stared at him for several seconds. He snorted and burst into laughter, causing the other Irken to grow confused.

“Ohhh no no no no no,” 2K answered, “I didn’t steal it. If anything, the Zim gangs are the ones who are thieves. You see, they stole this bee Zim’s honey and so, I took it so I can give it back to him.”

2002’s eyes widen,

“So...you took that honey so you can give it back to its rightful owner? Are you saying you help Zims?”

2K felt awkward by this question.

“Uh. Yes and no. It’s complicated, alright? Just stick with me here and I’ll tell you all about eventually.”

He went ahead and pulled the rope out of his PAK, tying one end around his waist. While he’s doing so, 2002 can notice that the smeet’s body was quivering.

“Are you sure about this? You look to be freezing.”

“For the last time, I’ll be fine! Here,” he throws the other end of the rope to him, “once I give you the signal, pull!”

“W-Wait. What kind of signa-?”

2K lets out a deep breath and plunges back underwater. Again, rushing into danger before forming a more cautious plan. This smeet is really going to get killed one of these days. He sighs in soft irritation, but lets his head sink underwater to see what he’s doing. He can be seen swimming in almost a chaotic fashion, indicating that he’s not professional when it comes to swimming. He should at least be glad the water is shallow. 2K soon after gets to the jar, hugging it dearly with both his arms and legs. He looks back at the Irken fish and dips his head.

He guesses that’s his cue. Seriously, why did he sign up for this? Regardless, he started pulling the rope as much as he can, with 2K strongly clinging unto it. With one last pull, the jar came out of the narrow pathway. What he did not expect however was as a result, the water that was piling up from the blockage started racing through the sewage, causing him to tumble and loose his grip on the rope. He immediately reacted to this in panic, watching the tiny figure struggle about and still holding on as he was starting to be swept away.

“2K!!”

At this point, his body wasn’t thinking. He launched up on the surface, his fish-like instinct kicking instantly as he both paddled and ran through the water in a brute force. He sees the end of the rope and jumps back into the water to grip onto it. Underwater, he can see 2K again, his body struggling even more and kicking his way to the surface to gasp for breath. It only lasted two seconds before the water pushed him back underneath. 2002 then noticed at that moment that the rope around his waist was loosening.

“2K!” He shouted out from underwater, “the rope!”

The smeet immediately turned to him in short confusion before looking down at the rope, already seeing it start to loosen by the force of the water. In a bubbly sound of realization and panic, he immediately grabbed onto the rope once it completely loosened. He was now gripping the rope as much as he can with just one hand while the other hand still tightly holding onto the jar. He quickly turned 2002, who looked like a silhouetted staring right at him and trying to reach out for him.

“2K, let go of the rope and grab onto my hand!”

But there was a growing horror on the child’s expression that came out of nowhere, almost forced to let go of the rope, but instantly grabbed onto it again once it slid away from 2002’s reaching hand.

“Come on! You shouldn’t be scared! You just have to let go and trust me!”

He tried to reach again, but the smeet’s hand slid again when he got close. By now, hehad a look as if he was screaming for air. But at the same time still looks to be refusing on being rescued. His eyes just showed complete utter fear towards him. Wait. Towards him?

He shouldn’t be scared of him. He’s been supporting him all this time. Unless. No....what is he thinking? Does he really think he’s going to snatch the honey from him and let him be sucked away from the sewage? Just so he can get food for himself? Ofcourse he would never do such a thing! And yet, he can’t blame him. He doesn’t know what a real Zim would do. There’s possibly many viewpoints on it. But whether it’s part of being a Zim or not, there was no way he would ever ditch someone like this. He doesn’t care. He was going to rescue him.

But how can he convince him that this is what he’s trying to do? What should he say? A thought suddenly flashed in his mind. It was something he obviously done, given he always makes this tone whenever his Gir would be terrified of thunderstorms, a fly, or anything in general. Now 2K is not his Gir, that is for certain. But if it’s the only way.....

2K is seen glancing at the dark void behind him, not knowing how else to escape it.

“Hey.”

He flinched and quickly turned to the voice that sounded calmer and gentle. The fish hybrid now wore a face of understanding and warm expression. He reaches his hand out to him again.

“Trust me.”

The horrid expression soften a bit. He looks behind him and back at his hand. It seems he had no other choice but risk it. Squeezing his eyes shut, ready to embrace his fate, he pulled up the rope enough for his hand to let go and reach out. Just before he would get sucked into the narrow endless sewage pathway, he felt a bigger hand grip unto his, yanking him away. He pulled him right out of the water, helping the smeet as he wheezes and gasp for air, before embracing him tightly and hanging on to best there is. The water level would eventually descend, until there were just tiny streams of water on the floor.

2002 noticed this and let out a sigh of relief. He was then reminded that he was still holding onto him by feeling a small being quiver a lot and continue coughing. What he didn’t expect when checking up on him was that the baby was tightly hugging him. 2K soon after open his eyes to notice his surroundings and looked up to notice him gripping unto 2002 for protection. They quickly let go of each other as a result, with 2K letting himself sit on the ground and put the honey jar down.

“You ok?” 2002 asked

“Yes yes,” he made few last coughs,“I’m fine, Ofcourse. Zim is always fine.”

He hugged himself and shivered,

“Ugh. I stink so bad! And not stink as if I’m the worst, of course I’m always the best. But I mean I smell stinky!”

“You should worry more on your body temperature,” 2002 responded, “you’re shivering like crazy. We should head back to where we came from before it worsens.”

“Oh pu-lease! As if a stupid water from this sort of dimensional void would make me...”

His sentence was interrupted when 2K started to make a strange uncomfortable expression before inhaling and letting out just a tiny squeaky sneeze, startling 2002 regardless. Now thinking about it, how is he able to sneeze when they don’t have noses? Regardless, 2K looked up at 2002 and replied with,

“Actually. Maybe that’ll be a good idea if I ride on your back. But only for a little while.”

The Irken nodded. He picks up 2K and puts him on his back.

“I’ll carry the jar for now. You need to rest a bit anyway.”

“Pssh!” The smaller invader looked away, “Don’t be ridiculous! Irkens dont need to rest!”

“Then how do you charge your PAK without food or PAK charger?” 2002 tested him.

2K of course did not answered that and instead pouted.

“Remember,” older one continued, “you still need to pay back for my sandwich. Not to mention that you have to give back that honey jar to....whoever this Zim is. Just rest until I let you know that we’re at the exit.”

“Ughh! Fine. You know for a Zim, you can be so bossy,” he said as he started laying on his back and trying to get comfortable.

_Bossy, huh?_ 2002 thought unamused. _If_ _anything, you’re the bossy one._

But decided not to respond to this, afraid he would just make the smeet act snappy as a result, and instead rolled his eyes. He began to crawl through the sewage. While he was doing so, the younger invader wanted to ignore him. But there was a thought that wouldn’t leave him as his annoyance soften and traced his eyes at the other Zim.

“....Hey. About what you did back there. You know, rescuing me and all.”

Curious, 2002 looked back at him, thinking he might say something ridiculous until he saw that 2K was awkwardly glancing away with a bit of shyness and embarrassment in his expression.

He stopped the moment he saw 2K stuck his tongue out with a now struggling expression, making only sounds of,

“Th-th-th....th...tha..thhhhhh!”

“Your welcome,” 2002 suddenly responded still blankly gazing at him.

His small atennae shot up and quickly responded back,

“That wasn’t what I was going to say! I was going to say ‘thanks a lot’! No. ‘The heck is wrong with you!’! No....”

2K took a huge deep breath. He exhaled and gave in.

“Ok, maybe I was going to say that.”

He looks at the Irken hybrid,

“How did you even know what I was going to say?”

2002 shrugged,

“Don’t know. Maybe because we’re sort of the same person that I can read what you’re going to say next?”

“Maybe? Urgh, I don’t know,” he looks away, “sounds creepy. Either way, don’t tell anybody I said that. Cause I’ll punch your guts out for sure if you do!”

“Uh sure,” he blankly looks away, “I won’t tell anyone....”

There was few seconds of silence. 2002 snorted and smirked.

2K quickly looked back at him,

“What’s so funny?!”

2002’s hidden laughter soften,

“It’s nothing. Anyways, let’s keep going.”

2K didn’t say anything else, letting the older one keep going again. He sighs. He lays back down on his back, trying to avoid laying on his PAK or the tube attached to him. His body continued to quiver by how cold and wet he felt, trying to get as warm as possible. Once he received a bit of warmth from 2002’s body, the shivering in his body soften a bit, beginning to trace his thoughts away from the cold. His thoughts wandered off a bit, thinking how he got himself into this situation. After all, he never chatted with a Zim this long before. Nor has a Zim ever been with him this long before.

His thoughts hasn’t changed the fact that he was a weird and sensitive one. But he did save his life, which is something he didn’t expect whatsoever.He’s ok....he guess. He feels his mind cloud, the coldness on his body numbing a bit, and his eyes closed shut.


	8. Issue 7

“.......2k.....2K.....”

The baby Irken made a soft humming sound in his slumber, his eyes peacefully shut and drooling as he starts nestling deeper unto someone’s suit and getting as much warmth from their body as possible.

“....2k....”

“Mmm.....not now, robot arm. Five more mi.....”

He softly snores shortly after.

“...Hey,” a bigger hand pats his head, but not too hard, causing the smeet to let out a sharp snort and wake up.

“Gh-Huh?” He looks about drowsily.

“2k,” the smeet turns to a voice that came from the Fish Zim, who was looking at him with patience, before pointing up at something, “were here.”

He was confused for a moment until he looked up to where he was pointing at, seeing the opened sewer bar that they first entered from. There was no mistaking it. He fully shot awake and smiled,

“Hey, you actually found where we came in!”

“Took a while,” 2002 sighed, “my eyes were squinting the entire time. Not to mention that I’m starting to feel-“

“Come on come on come on!!” He jumped out of his back and snatched the honey, excitedly looking up like an impatient child, “let’s get out of here and give that bee Zim his honey back! Besides,” he looks back at him, “I’m starting to freeze-!”

His smile fades when he notices something from 2002.

“Woah. You look terrible. Is there something wrong?”

“Huh?” The scuba diver tries to pay attention to the smeet.

“You look like an old Irken. Seriously. You have bags under your eyes, you look a little discolored. Is your PAK running low on power or something?”

“Well,” he tried to rub his face, which was only blocked by his head bowl, “I was going to say that I felt drained. It must be from the entire journey I went through before I got here. It doesn’t help that I haven’t eaten a sandwich yet.”

“Well you can’t rest now!” 2K told him, “you’re almost there! Come on, lift me up so I can climb out of here. Then I can pull you up!”

“You sure you’re not going to ditch me here?”

2k grew unamused,

“Just do what I say.”

2002 rolled his eyes. Why should he even care if this child ditches him? He got the honey after all. He should sort of know by now on what kind of world he’s in.

“Whatever. Warm yourself up when you get the chance.”

He goes ahead and holds 2K by the waist, lifting him up enough to let the smeet happily wiggle his way out of the sewage and disappear. He waited for several seconds, but can already guess by now that he wasn’t coming back. So much for know what the whole “Resistance” and “The Elder” was all about. Though why would he even care about something that was very likely not related to escaping the Zimvoid? He should at least be glad the smeet survived in this sewage if it wasn’t for his help. He looked about the sewage. Knowing that he does not have the energy to climb up right now, it maybe be a good idea to just rest down here. Not like he has any choice to-

The light of the opening was blocked all of the sudden and he turned to see who blocked it. He saw that the smeet has reappeared, reaching out his small hand. His eyes widened in surprise, staying frozen for few seconds. 2K grew impatient.

“Come on, Slowpoke. I don’t have all day.”

2002 gazed at him for a short while. He smiled and gave a nod. He reaches his hand out to him. But just before their hands would lock on, 2K’s hand suddenly swept away, followed by the child letting out a yelp.

“Gotcha!” A voice shouted out as two arms quickly latched around the smeet’s body and took him away, causing 2002 to loose sight of him within a second.

“RGHH! GET OFF OF ME!” 2K’s angry voice shouted out to the stranger that took him.

2002 can process on what might be happening out there, not caring about his low energy, as he started to climb up.

“Hey!” He narrowed, “let go of him-AH!”

He felt two hands grasp tightly at his suit and yank him out of the sewage, pinning him on the ground. He sees the cowboy Zim that was pinning down lean close to him and say,

“Don’t move.”

“Well just as I thought,” Sword Cat, who was tightly gripping onto the thrashing smeet, looked down at him, “you still have that scuba diver Zim with you. What? Decided that you’re too weak to defend yourself?”

2K struggles to breathe a bit from the grip, but was able to loosen enough to breathe better and glare.

“Heh...and I see you still need to have two Zims with you. Does that mean you can’t catch us by yourself-GK!”

The leader of the gangs tighten the smeet to the point that he nearly gagged.

Sword Cat replies,

“You know, I was gonna go easy on you at first. In fact, why would I even want to beat up a helpless little baby?”

Despite feeling hurt by the grip, 2K still tried to wear a brave smile.

“Tch....being a baby...heh..doesn’t mean anything, you coward.”

“Hey,” 2002 spoke again, “I said let him go!”

“Oh really now,” Sword Cat looked at the pinned down scuba diver, with the Ninja Zim helping Sheriff hold him back in case he tries to fight back, “and why would we do that? Do you know how much he has been annoying us this past week? After all, how would you feel if someone kept getting in your way from accomplishing something? Do you even know this little twerp?”

2002 hesitated, thinking about what he said. 2K eyes on him, curious on what he will say about him.

“Well....actually...I barely know him. We just met few hours ago. He bumped into me while I was trying to run off with my sandwich.”

Sword Cat let out a laughter,

“So you’re a thief too! Thought so. You kind of look like one.”

“So what if I am?” He narrowed, blushing in embarrassment, “Dont all Zims break rules?”

“Not if you were still one of Number 1’s slave. That is unless there’s the second reason. Tell me little fella,” he looked at 2K in a almost a cooing tone, “were you able to learn a little more about him?”

“Yeah right,” the baby narrowed, “as if I ever want to learn about a Zim that is less superior than me!”

You liar, 2002 gave an unamused expression, you asked me countless of questions about my life not long ago.

Though it does make sense if he is just saying this to defend him. Either that or he is just embarrassed to admit that he’s curious about him.

“Aw come on now,” he patted his head, “I’m sure you should remember something.”

Before 2K can angrily defend himself, 2002 spoke out again,

“Hey, stop that already! He’s not as helpless as you think!”

The group all looked at him. Even 2K looked at him pretty surprised.

“What was that?” Sword Cat tilted his head.

2002 stiffen, realizing that he might have said something wrong to make all the Zims look at him differently. Even though he wanted to back down, he tried to find another way to defend him while covering himself up.

“H-he may not be better than I. But I know he has much more potential than you think! So what if he’s a baby? He may be stubborn and reckless, but it doesn’t change that he’s very skillful and willing to face things no matter how scary it seems! If it wasn’t for his navigation skills, he would have never found the honey jar!”

2K blinked, his mouth dropped a bit in awe. For all the smeet knows, no one has ever told him this. He was just always so use to complimenting this himself.

“And what are you trying to say from this?” The leader’s eyebrow raised, “that you would have never found the honey jar by yourself, Fish Head?”

He narrowed more, now getting completely tired of being called that.

“Possibly much faster than you, you hairball freak!”

The group fell dead silence. The cat Zim let out a huge disgusted look. The two other Zim’s eyes shot wide open in utter shock. The smeet’s jaw dropped open before letting out a huge excited smile,

“OooooooOOOOO YOU TELL HIM, JOHNNY!”

But 2002 at that moment came into a realization of what words he just spilled out, his heart sinking.

Oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot, what did he just say? Shoot! This was not what he intended on doing! He only flipped out because the cat was getting on his complete nerves! Please no fighting dookie dookie dookie!!

“....What did you just call me?” the the brown cat’s tone suddenly went deep.

The fish Irken body quivered.

“....uh...uh...that’s what I said....but...”

He glared at him for a while and squinted.

“Zims, hold onto the smeet.”

“But Sword Cat,” Sheriff said, “the scuba diver might-“

“Let him. I want to show him who’s the real Zim here.”

The two members glanced at each other for few seconds. They let go of him and backed off, with the leader handing the smeet over to the cowboy. 2K turns and shouted out,

“Yeah! Come on, Tom! Show him who’s boss!”

_2k, shut up!_

2002 tried to crawl back in over to get away from him. But he storms over and lifts him up by grabbing his suit,

“You think you’re so funny huh? Come on!” He shook him violently, “fight me!”

2002 just remained quiet. He felt the urge to fight back, but at the same time was scared to do so. Why would he? There was no point in it. Darn it, this is not what he wanted at all! This is a bad time to show it!

“What are you waiting for, Huh? Are you fighting or not?!”

_Do it do it do it! You are Zim! Zim should not back down from anything! So what if it’s your other self? It’ll be just like fighting Dib!_

2002’s teeth clenched his fist raising up, ready to punch him. It landed on the cat Zim’s face, but with very little effort, before it slid down. Sword Cat grew unamused.

“....That was it?”

He throws him back down and pins him down by the squeedlyspooch.

“Don’t play tricks on me, Fishy! What do you have up your sleeves?!”

2K’s smile began to ebb away as he watches him kick him by stomach, causing 2002 to cough out bubble. Stepping on his belly again, Sword tried to smile,

“Heh...you can’t even fight, can’t you? Why you’re nothing more than a really soft Zim! That’s why Number 1 kicked you into the wasteland. What? To scared to fight your other self?”

Willing to fight back the pain, his hand reached out and grasped tightly unto Sword Cat’s ankles, trying to get his foot off his abdomen without hurting him. He was able to ease the pain a bit, letting him breathe his water a bit easier, but didn’t last long. The cat kicked off his hands and continued to pin down his belly, causing 2002’s body to tense again and let out a croak, feeling his strength start to drain more than it is right now.

With the condition he’s in, there’s no telling how long he’s going to last before he finally gives out. What will happen to the smeet if he does? It will not end well. That is for sure. His pained eyes traced to 2k, who was staring down at him with now a dazed look. He was not even rooting for him, scoffing, or bragging. He just stared at him without a smile on his face. But the two Zims seem to be distracted by the scene going on. 2002 wonders if he can let him know just by his expression that he needs to get out of here.

_Go...run...run._

2K started to show an expression by his eyebrows furrowing, his eyes still glued to him.

_Go...go...go..._

He starts to see the world get blurry, his body starting to fight less from the pain that was getting numb-like. He felt like he was going to faint at any moment. He wonder why his PAK hasn’t started alerting him of this yet. But before his sight got to blurred enough to see, he saw 2K’s narrowed eyes turned to the cowboy that was holding him captive.

“Naw come on now, Sword. He looks like he just have-“

2K sharply turns to his arms and uses his huge buck tooth to bite down on it, causing a soft cracking sound to be heard. Sheriff let out a huge howl of pain, causing him to loose grip on the smeet and focus on his arm.

2002 suddenly felt his squeedlyspooch feel lighter, causing his consciousness to start strengthening, as he watches the Cat Zim look behind him.

“Eh? What’s the commo-“

The small Irken leaps out and yanked on his cat ears, causing him to let out a yowl.

“AGHHHHHHHHH! GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME YOU TWIT!”

2K kept on holding on and looked at the other hybrid laying on the ground.

“Charlie! Get the honey and run!”

2002 tried to process what he said despite how badly sore and weak he felt,

“Wh...what?”

“You! Ninja!” Sword Cat called out, “get him off of me! Sheriff, stop crying over a baby bite and come help me!”

“But...it hurts as bad as when I stubbed my foot on that cactus!” He blurted out all teary-eyed.

Sword Cat angrily blurts back,

“WELL AREN'T YOU SUPPOSE TO BE THE TOUGH ONE-AGH!”

2K yanks his ears even more, causing him to nearly fall back.

2K looks back at 2002.

“The honey is right over there!” He points over to the jar that was laying on the ground, “get it before they do and run off with it!”

2002 stared at him dazed,

“But...what about you?!”

“Please,” he narrowed, “I can take them all by my-“

2K suddenly gets grabbed by the Ninja Zim before he is thrown on the ground and pinned down.

“2K-!”

The smeet quickly recovered and thought fast, biting down his leg as well, causing him to yell in pain and get off of him. Makes 2002 wonder at this moment what that tooth of his is made out of.

“For Irk’a sake just go already!” The baby shouts out.

The leader was confused when he overheard the smeet say this and turned to back to 2002.

His heart jumped. At this point, he felt that maybe he should make a run for it. The leader of the gang watches him dash off, grabbing the honey and starts running.

“Hey!” He yells and starts to chasing him, “you get back here! That’s ours-!”

He felt a small Irken tackle him to the ground and pulled his arms back in order to restraining him.He grunts, trying to break loose from the strong kid, before making a hidden cackle,

“You just don’t know when to give up, don’t you, Baby.”

“For the last time,” he squinted, “my name is NOT ‘Baby’. I am ZIM-!”

He suddenly gets yanked away by one of the other irkens and gets thrown again, this time on one of the junk piles. 2002 screeches to halt when hearing a loud sound. He turns behind him to see that 2K was now laying on the ground looking quite beaten.

He didn’t move at this point. 2002’s body was in a frozen position, his blood boiling over someone he’s only known for a short while getting hurt. He wanted to scream out for him, telling him that what he is doing is horribly reckless. yet he was still too scared to barge back into scene, knowing that that it can harm the item and himself too as a result. Sword Cat took a moment to get up from the beating the smeet has given him, but looked down upon the injured young invader, his body straightening.

“If you really are a ‘Zim’, a real Zim would never go down by their own fight. And given you only recruited a Zim that is too soft to even fight, you’re on your own in this battle. Do you even think you can ever beat us?”

The small body was still.

“...Tell you what. If you feel ready to raise the white flag, go back to the Resistance. Maybe they can assign you to something less harmful. Or better yet, step down from it and worry more about yourself. The Zimvoid is nothing compared to whatever your timeline is like. You act as though we will all take you seriously within just a single day when in reality, no one wants to listen to your blabbering. Like come on, seriously. You think we would ever want to listen to an infant?”

The small body was still for a little longer before it started shaking.

Ok. That’s it. He had enough of cowering. 2002 stepped right in and opened his mouth-

“Yes. It can happen for sure,” the younger alien suddenly spoke in a shaky tone.

2k let out a grunt as his hand shakily pressed unto the ground and started to get up with an effort.

“Like I said. I may be a baby, but I am still a Zim and true invader at heart.”

2k looks out at them with a determined smile that almost hid pained look he was wearing.

“If it even means getting beaten down by you losers over and over again, I will not back down. I will not give up no matter what you say about me. I will make you all see what I’m capable of and I will find a way of breaking down this stupid system so we can go home and continue conquering our Urths! We don’t need to see our faces again. But if you still don’t believe me, then that’s fine: I’ll keep on fighting in order to believe me. So come on.”

He goes into his battle stance.

“Give me all that you got.”

2002 silently stood still, gazing blankly at the smeet still standing. That’s what it is....that’s what it is.He can feel his heart pump in a burst of energy, despite the drainage of his PAK’s energy, just by the child smiling with determination. Even if there’s a chance he was deep down scared, judging by his body softly shivering (though it could also be he was still cold from the sewers).

He let out a smirk

_Heh...guess you’re not stupidly reckless after all..._

The gangs stared down at the smeet in confusion. The ninja and cowboy Zims glanced at each other, hesitating. Sword Cat made a beat of a pause, but squinted .

“Alright fine,” he formed a fist and walked over to him, “let’s see what you got then. Sheriff! Ninja! Lets show the little guy what happens when he messes with us for too long.”

They both snapped out of their thoughts, not wanting to think further and started to crowd towards him.

2K’s body tensed despite still smiling in determination.

It was fine. He was ok with that. He was going to win this time. He won’t let some lowly versions of himself take him down. He prepared himself, ready to do whatever he can to fight all of them, as he watches the leader approach him, the light only showing the back of his body and his squinting eyes beaming down at the small Irken. He watches his hand form a fist and prepared to punch him. Suddenly, a fist from behind flew onto the cat’s cheek causing him to softly spin a bit before collapsing on the ground with a thud. He however was not fully out as his hand was pressing against the ground while his other hand touched where he was punched, already starting to look pinkish.

2K, looked completely astonished. He looked at his fists. Did he do that? No that’s a stupid question, he wasn’t behind that cat Zim. Once he was certain someone else did it, he looked up, with the two members looking behind him. The fist belonged to 2002. He stood still there, his face filled with disbelief on what he has done. He should feel immense panic and the feeling of running away from it. But that feeling felt numb. He felt like he was holding himself back for nothing. His mind and body awoke again from the trance as soon as the Zims tries to attack him as a quick response, causing the fish hybrid to quickly sweep his legs across their feet and make them loose balance.

2K silently watched as he quickly ran over towards him in order to shield him. Wait, no. He’s standing next to him while forming his battle stance and locking his eyes unto the gangs, knowing that it wasn’t over yet with the way the three irkens were recovering from the sudden blows. 2K continued to stare at him. He angrily growled and said,

“HEY! This is MY fight! You wouldn’t even last a moment fighting them alone! Don’t just do it for MY sake!”

“You’re right. I can’t do this myself. And neither can you.”

2K’s atennae shot up. And squinted,

“What’s that suppose to mean?!”

2002 made a beat of a pause,

“If we are able to escape this together, we are gonna have to team up and beat these low-headed inferiors together.”

At that moment, the small baby Irken’s offended and angered look on his face slowly disappeared. His mind wanted to make sure he heard those words correctly.

“Wait. You want to...’team up’ with me?”

The fish hybrid said nothing more. He turned to lock eyes at the child version of himself that was right next him. He made a look that the smeet never thought he would see from him. His smirk, followed by his eyes starting show a sense of connection. Eyes telling him how he is trusting his strength and confidence. And by just seeing this, something in 2K’s chest told him that it was true. He didnt want to fight for himself. And he didn’t want to fight for him. He wanted to fight with him.

The eyes within the lenses of his goggles glistened in awe. And he let out the biggest determined and confidential smile he made towards him. He gave strong positive head dip. The both looked away from each other, now locking their eyes on the gangs getting up, and both took their battle stance. Sword Cat rubbed his cheek and looked at the duos at the dead end of the alley, their both of their exhausted eyes now showing a sense of strength within them despite their PAK’s energy starting to go to its limit. His eyes traces to the taller one,

“You...I thought you didnt like beating up Zims! Did beating up the baby got you angry to the point that you changed your mind?”

2002 just stayed quiet while remaining where he was.

That is not why. It is definitely not the reason.

Sword Cay waited for his answers. But when he came to a realization that he wasn’t going to answer, he narrowed.

“Hmph! Fine! Have it your way. But even if you two really are deciding to fight us, you you can’t beat us! Two Zims. A baby and a fish versus the most notorious gangs to walk the street. Heh! You sorry looking Zims have no chance! For I will be the one who will be the ultimate Zim! And I will-“

As he is continuing his speaking, this gave 2002 a chance to whisper to2K,

“So what’s the plan?”

“What plan?” He asked.

“On beating those thugs down. You got something good?”

“Oh. Uh,” his eyes traced about. “I....honestly never thought I would really be teaming up with someone. So I temporarily got nothing.”

“How ‘temporarily’ exactly?” He quietly questioned.

“Um...uh. Two...five minutes?”

“Shoot, that’s not enough time. It’s fine though. I’ll see if I find anything.”

Whatever he can think of, it has to be quick. He frantically glanced about. Now thinking about it, how the florp can two of them fight three opponents. Heck! They’re going against a cowboy, a ninja, and a cat with a freaking sword! Three of them against two Zims they have already been through many stuff today, he’s not sure if he may have enough energy left in them. He has to think of something.

He kept looking about in desperation until his eyes landed on tiny scraps nearby 2K’s feet. One plan came into his mind all of a sudden and....wow this is going to sound crazy.

“2K,” he whispered.

“You got something?”

“Can you land easily?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I need you to throw these tiny scraps at one of the group.”

2K turned to 2002 in confusion,

“But those things won’t knock them out at all! And how does it relate to me landing well?”

“It’s a distraction. But I’m going to toss you up into the air.”

“You’re gonna what?!” 

Sword Cat begins to charge, quickly catching them in alert.

“NOW!” 2002 shouted.

2K didn’t have time to make a choice. He quickly grabbed the tiny scraps and throws it at his face. It barely injured him, but he halted just as soon as he did. He looks down at them in complete confusion, making the others look closely at them too. Now is the chance. Without being able to give him a warning, he gripped unto 2K’s uniform and threw him up high unto the air, causing him to scream.

The gangs then looked up, dazed on why he did this. There was a lot going through the child’s mind as he was being shot unto the air. What was even the plan? He looked down to realize he wasn’t flying that far, him looking like he was about to to fall unto one of them. That was when it clicked to him. He smirked playfully.

_Not bad, Fish Irken._

He started getting into position. While he was doing so, 2002 took the chance to charge and swept two of the Zims on the ground, with the ninja Zim still standing. Just before he would try to attack 2002 as a result, 2K kicked down his head with his feet, knocking him unconscious. The two other Zims that fell on the ground began to stand up, with the cat hissing and shouting,

“WHY YOU-!”

2002 reacted quickly clasping his hands and using him to punch down his head by force enough to nearly loose conscious before kicking him against the wall. With the cowboy Zim seeing that he was the last one standing he quickly punched 2002 by the abdomen, causing him to loose the chance of attacking him as he pinned him against the wall. 2002 did not realize how strong this guy actually was, his teeth clenching in pain.

“You may have done defeated the leader,” he said his eyes squinting, “but that doesn’t mean he's not the only strongest one here.”

He pulled out his rope and just before he was going to tie him up, 2K landed on his head.

“And HE’S not the only strongest one you’re facing either, you bully!”

“Rghh!” He starts pulling him, “Let go of me, will ya! LET GO!”

Now getting a chance, the fish Irken kicked him away from him.

“Hop on me!” He told 2K. He did as told and launched off him in order to land on top of his head bowl. The cowboy Zim tried to charge again only for 2K kick him on the face when he got close to the two and 2002 finishing him off by punching him across the cheek, causing him to slide on the ground and go unconscious.

The duos panted in exhaustion. 2K slid off the older Zim and took his battle stance again, waiting to see if any one of them would get up. When it lasted a minute, 2002 walked over to them and nudge each one of them.

“Ok..” he panted, “Looks like they’re out.”

“They’re really out?”

2002 looked at him.

“It seems that way.”

“Oh...” the smeet took a moment to process the fact that they actually did it.

“Then HA!” He let out a huge smile and pointed at them, “you think you can take down the glorious Zim and his new sidekick! But we have proven to come out victorious! YEAH! In your face!”

“Sidekick?” 2002 grew unamused, “really?”

“Aw come on,” he gave a shrug, “it’s much better than being considered an ‘inferior Zim’. And I don’t think I have ever gave someone this high of a title before. Anyways, WE DID IT!” he celebrated. He hesitated. He then crossed his arms and looks away for a moment.

“Well Ofcourse I did most of the fighting. But uh....I guess it was nice teaming up with someone for once. Even though I would have...sort of come out victorious either way.”

“...but yeah,” he looked up at him smiling, “we did pretty good out there!”

The fish Irken blinked. It was almost as if the smeet was starting to debate himself. He didn’t know what it was all about, but it appears the smeet was starting to show a bit more respect to him then usual. He chuckled and smiled back,

“Yeah. I don’t think I ever fought like that in my life.”

His smile fades when he thought of what the gangs did to him back there.

“How are you feeling? You took quite a beating out there.”

Hey!” He held his head high in confidence, “don’t worry about me! It’ll take a lot for some notorious thugs to bring me down! They just can’t take any of this stuff!”

He started making actives air punches and kicks while making a “heeyah! Hooya! Waaaa!” sound.

But when he makes a high jump kick, he felt his injury sting him, causing him to yelp and whimper,

“Ow ow ow....”

But he soon after tries to shake the pain off and look back at the other Irken with a pained smile,

“See? Im a cold-blooded invader that cant be messed with!”

2002 couldn’t help but fondly smile again, admiring his confidence once again.

“And what about you? How’s your squeedlyspooch doing?” The younger one asked.

“It could have been worse,” the hybrid rest his hand on his abdomen, “the pain should go down within few hours or so.”

“Well, I should have known you would have been ok either way.”

2002 nodded when he was suddenly reminded of something.

“Oh. Almost forgot.”

2K tilted his head a bit in curiosity as he watched the fish Irken walk over to behind the pile. He bent over, biting back the painful sores and fatigued feeling in his body. He pulls out the honey jar, indicating he hid it quickly before joining the fight, and walks back to him.

“Here,” he lends it over to him, “you have a honey that needs to be returned to its true owner.”

2K blinked in a bit of surprise, almost have forgotten about it.

“Ooo! Thanks!” He happily takes it and looked at the honey for a moment. He then looked up to him still smiling.

“You know I’m still pretty angry at you for snatching me away when we first met.”

“Hey,” 2002 teased a bit, “I’m still angry at you for making me loose that sandwich.”

“Eh,” the kid playfully rolled his eyes, “I guess that’s true. But you know, as bossy, and sensitive you are...You’re a pretty cool Zim. I mean the way how you punched that kitty cat back there. And how you threw me up into the air like that so I can kick down one of them while you punched that other guy!”

2002 chuckled,

“Let’s not forget how you bit down that cowboy’s arm.”

“Yes yes!” 2K hops a bit like an excited child, “and the way how he reacted after I did that!”

He starts imitating him by letting out a tearful expression and grasping one of his arm.

“But....but Sword Cat! It hurts sooooo bad!”

2002 chuckled again a bit more weakly while he continued to pay attention to him. But during this, he feels a big wave of tiredness hit his body, causing him to rest his hand in front of his head bowl and weakly grunt.

“Oh and the way how the cat got sooooo mad at him! Seriously, those guys are nothing but doofuses!” He looks back at 2002, “Right-?”

His smile fades when he notices that the other Irken was starting to look faint.

“Woah hey,” he walks over to him, “what’s the matter?”

Just as soon as he asked, 2002 PAK started blinking it’s lights and beeping.

“Energy percentage low,” a robotic voice came out of it.

“Aw geez,” 2K frowned with a hint of concern. He looks up at him, “what do you want me to do?”

He starts to breathe heavily, taking notice that 2K was standing right close to him. Which was not the best time for him to be in that position. He tried to gently shove him away, in which he was only strong enough to press his hand on the smeet’s chest.

“2K.....get....”

He starts to look weaker until he completely lost his footing. 2K was able to react in time by quickly moving out of the way before his body would fall on him, watching him fall face down on the ground. After his PAK stops beeping, the smeet quickly goes over to him and shakes his body.

“Hey, hey. Come, on get up! It’s too dangerous to pass out in this location!”

Despite trying to shake him awake as much as he could, it was clear he won’t be waking up until his PAK charges. 2K clenches his fist in frustration.

“Dookie!” He softly mutters.

What now? He can’t just drag a grown Irken while carrying a heavy jar all at the same time. The best he can do at this point is leave him behind and then take the jar with him. It’s not like anything will happen to him, he’s just charging. 2K sighs and releases his unconscious body, walking over to the jar and picking it up. He starts walking off but stops. His eyes furrowed.

Then again. What will happen if the thugs wake up first?

He looks, seeing that 2002 was surround by the knocked out gangs.

Well. Maybe I can just go back to the base, tell the Elder and Meat everything, and they can go get him. Yeah! That’s a brilliant plan! I should go right away!

He begins to run off, thinking of getting there as fast as he could while ignoring the weight of the honey. But his running slowed again. Another thought interrupted him.

But what if they wake up before they even arrive?

The smeet stood still for a while. He looks back at 2002.

———————————————————————————————

It was now nighttime in the Wasteland. By the entrance of the Resistance base, the Elder and Meat looked out, trying to track one of their member.

“Hmm,” the Elder said, “you think he would be back by now. You don’t see him either?”

The baloney shook his head.

“Thought so. Well Meat, you can go ahead and search for him.”

He gives a nod and hops away, heading down the hills to go to the town. The Elder sighs and sits down in a cross-legged position. One thing for sure is that the young Zim was getting more reckless these days. If he doesn’t find him a partner soon, he will possibly get even more injured. Then again, he wonder if he can just train him every morning. But would that make a difference? Even when his thing is-?

“MMMPH! MPPHH!”

The Elder quickly blinked and saw that the baloney Irken was already rushing back, even though he was only gone for a minute or two.

“What Is it? You found him?”

“Mmmph mmf!” The Meat muffled as he gestured him to follow him. Whatever it was, it was possibly urgent. Getting a bit concerned, he quickly got up, got his pipe cane, and followed after him.

They were going nearly halfway down the hill and already he started to hear a beeping sound of someone’s PAK in the distance, followed by soft pink blinking lights. But a PAK doing that would be from someone who’s energy is running low. Could it be...

The Elder kept walking fast paced until he halted halted and blankly looked at what he was seeing. 2K was seen by the pathway holding a honey jar, his other arm holding unto the an unconscious Irken’s hand. Or a Irken that is a hybrid of a fish to say the least. 2k had an extremely exhausted expression on his face, his PAK beeping and blinking it’s lights to indicate how much he drained all his energy. There was no mistaking it that this smeet actually carried a jar that is too big for him to carry while dragging a full grown Irken at the the same time. But for how long?

“2k?” The Elder spoke, “what in the Zimvoid happened to you? Who is this Zim? How did you get that stolen honey? And why do you smell so funny?”

2k breathes to catch some breaths and fully looked at the Elder.

“This is gonna sound...insane. But he was able to help me...twice today.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, “what exactly happened today? What made you want to bring this stranger all the way here?”

2K sighed,

“I had to. They would have done something to him. Just....let him stay here for thu...n...”

He begins to loose his balance. And despite his old age, the Elder quickly bends over to catch him, the jar and the knocked out Irken lightly falling unto the ground.

He watches as his PAK stopped blinking and glowing. He looked at exhausted child for a short while and then turned to look at the stranger he spent who knows how long to bring over. It is very unlike him to ever help anyone. Normally, he would prefer to focus on his own well-being. Not to mention the fact that he might have only known him for a single day. It had to be. If he did meet him before, he would have told him this yesterday or earlier. If that is the case, why was he so willing to drag him all the way here? Where did he find this stranger?

Meat goes over to look at the stranger,

“Mmf mmf?”

“I don’t know,” the Elder responded, “but if 2K says that he needs to stay here, then he must be important for the Resistance.”

“Mmf Mmf?”

“That’s for the newcomer to decide. Besides, we still need to know more about him before we can request this to him.”

He goes ahead and fully scoops up 2K. He cradled him by his arms and looks at the baloney,

“Keep watch on our guest. I’ll take 2K to his bedroom so he can get comfortable and rest up. Wait until I come back and then we can bring him over to the base together.”

Meat nodded and hopped over to be besides the Irken hybrid. The old Zim then went ahead and started walking back to the base. He looked back down at the small Irken and given that he spends almost all the time acting like a regular grown up Zim, the child side will always find a way to seep out of him. He showed to have a peaceful expression of a sleeping infant just looking at him while his small hands was softly clinging unto the old guy’s beard despite being fully out. A soft smile appeared a bit from the Resistance leader, but it didn’t last long when the thought about the guest came into his mind next. He glanced a bit for a moment to see the fish Zim laying there on the ground besides one of the Resistance member. The only thing that kept floating through his mind was figuring who he really is. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kudos and the comments! It makes me happy to know that people are actually reading it! Just let many of you during the outbreak, I’ve been going through some complicated stuff. It would sometimes get bad to the point where I would barely focus on the fanfiction. But everything is ok, my family are ok. So that’s about it.
> 
> Again, sorry this ended up being pretty long. Writing the fight scene was possibly the most irritating part to do.


	9. Issue 8

2002 lets out a very soft grunt, feeling himself pull out of the void of unconscious. It took a short while for his eyes to flicker open due to the brightness, his blurry vision clearing up to find himself inside some sort of building. He’s not exactly sure how big it is. He can just see how rusty and a bit messy it was, with some junks seen at the corners of the wall. The warm light seeped through the opening door and windows, with the room he is in being almost empty. One thing he took notice of were some shards of glass dangling by the ceilings, reflecting small lights that surrounded part of the room. 2002 moved a bit, expecting to feel immense soreness on the back of the neck due to it arching back while he was lying down.

Fortunately enough, it wasn’t as bad he thought. And it was then that he realized that he was actually resting his body against the wall.

Huh....I wonder who brought me over here, he wondered. 2K? It has to be 2K, right? Who else would it have been?

His head softly turned about the room, looking for the baby version of himself.

“2K?” He called out.

No answer.

“2K, are you here?”

Still no answer.

His eyes furrowed. Maybe that smeet might be somewhere around this building doing something. Even so, he guesses this is his shelter. Quite a large space with a staircase for a tiny Irken to have all for himself. If so, how was he able to own it? His head aches a bit by those thoughts, making him not want to question more. After all, he just woke up. And as much as he wants to get up and look for him, there’s a possibility that the other invader could be busy with something else and doesn’t want to be interrupted.Not to mention that his body still needs to fully wake up.

He fully lets out a sigh. He lets himself lean back against the wall and closing his eyes in order to take a moment in breathing through his water easily and to take the small amount of stress out. He sat there for quite a while in order to feel the peacefulness of the empty room before opening his eyes a bit. He turned his head to the left to see nothing much in his sight except for an old Irken with a beard, holding a cup of tea and smiling right at him. He turned his head to the right to not see anything too interesting ei-

His body went stiff.

He turned to the left again to see the old guy still there.

“My my!” He happily spoke out, “about time you woke up!”

“...GYAH!” 2002 jumped back and tried to move away from him.

“Now now,” the Elder gently halted him, “I’m not gonna hurt you. You are safe and sound here. Tell me, did you sleep well? Your neck isn’t hurting?”

2002 froze while still leaning back in a defensive position. His scared eyes glued unto him, but began to feel the shock ease down with the way the old man gave a bit of a goofy but kind nurturing smile towards him. He frowned,

“U-uh....it feels, um. Fine?”

“Ah yes yes,” he smiled wide as he puts down his teacup and picks up the other one, along with a crafted teapot next to him, “I’m so glad to hear. I can’t imagine just how annoying it must be to sleep when you have that head bowl. I mean, you have limited comfortable sleeping positions, you cant scratch your own face, you can’t hold your head whenever you feel dizzy, stressed, or sad. How are you able to manage through that?”

The Elder starts to pour what looks like coffee onto the coffee. Could it be coffee? He’ll be surprised if there is actually coffee in the Zimvoid. But he ignored that thought and just gave an awkward uneasy chuckle, still not sure how to feel towards this old man,

“It’s er...not easy I’ll tell you that much.”

“Mmhm,” he hummed as he put the teapot down, “well at least on the bright side, you don’t have to worry about having your head squashed by someone’s foot. The head is one of the most sensitive part of the body that if someone punches it, you can go down easily.”

“Uh. Yes. Right-“

“Here,” the Elder suddenly lends him the drink, “you must be thirsty.”

2002 processed it and tried to give a polite smile,

“Oh no thank you. I don’t really drink anymore.”

“Ah, you can just go along with it. Sets the calm mood!”

2002 looked at him for a short while longer and then back at the teacup.

I guess it would stink if I say no to the old version of myself.

He goes ahead and carefully takes it, looking inside the cup, which appears to be filled with small scraps and thick brownish looking liquid. The hybrid starts to give an uncomfortable look,

“Um. What kind of drink is this exactly?”

“Mud tea!” He proudly announced, “with a flavor of scraps to go along with it! Doesn’t it look great?”

“Well...yes...looks. Great.”

The Elder chuckled again,

“Great to hear.”

2002 tried to chuckle back, despite it being possibly the fakest chuckle he’s ever made. It softly died down, his smile fading away, as his furrowed eyes gazed down at the tea again with a thought that kept bothering him. He lowered his tea and traced his eyes back at him.

“Listen, I know you love to chat with people and all, but I need to ask you something. I was with this Zim. This Zim was a baby version of ourselves. A size of a Gir, big baby tooth, wears agoggle. Have you ever seen him around?”

“Ah yes!” He answered, “you’re talking about 2K! You were really calling out to him earlier.”

The other Irken’s eyes widen,

“You know him? Where is he?”

“Relax. He’ll be fine. He’s resting up upstairs. Boy, the poor child was extremely exhausted. You must have really done or told him something that motivated him into dragging you all the way to this base while carrying a filled jar that is too heavy for a baby to carry.”

2002 made a beat of a pause,

“Wait...2K did that?”

“I know. I’m surprised as well,” he picked up his teacup again and starts stirring it, “after all, it’s extremely unlike him to go out and care about other Zims. The only ones he has ever been so nice to is myself and my other member.”

His eyes looked back up at the guest.

“Have you done something that made him want to do that? Something about ‘saving his life twice’?”

At first, he couldn’t understand what the bearded guy was talking about. But he then recall when he saved 2K from being swept away from the sewage’s filthy water. Along with supporting him during their fight with the notorious gangs. 2K must have told him this. Who else would have? Which would mean that he must be be his ally. He can’t however understand what this means when he said that it’s unlike the smeet to help others and how he can be responsible for his sudden change of behavior.

“I don’t seem to fully understand what you’re saying,” the fish hybrid spoke, “what makes you think that I made him want to help me? We’ve only interacted with each other for about few to several hours.”

“Alright then,” the Elder responded, “then you might as well tell me everything. How did you two met? What were you both doing? Why did you both come here with such low amounts of PAK energy?”

2002 blankly stared at him for quite a while. He guesses if he is going to get any answers out what exactly he’s talking about, it doesn’t hurt to tell him everything. He took a deep breathe and started telling him the story. How he came to the Wasteland and what he was doing. How he bumped into 2K and their deal. He told him the story of the sewage and rescuing him. How they ran into the gangs and how they decided to work together in order to defeat them. And finally, how he passed out soon after.

“The last thing I remember was 2K asking me if I was alright. I tried to move him out of the way so I won’t fall on him and I just blacked out right there. I can’t even tell if I actually did hurt him.”

His eyes have gazed at the ground while telling his story. And once he finished, looks back at the Elder.

“He didn’t look hurt, right?”

He shook his head, yet his hand stroke his beard when he did, processing the entire story. The stroking of his beard stopped, made a beat of a pause, and then set his eyes back on the other Irken.

“Impressive...”

“Impressive?” 2002’s eyebrow raised, “what do you mean by that?”

“It means I am very impressed by your actions. Normally, a Zim would prefer to focus on their own well being. After all what kind of Zim would want to help another weaker Zim?”

2002 looked at him confused,

“Uh. You sort of did?”

“Technically yes. Though I wouldn’t have done so if 2K didn’t bring you over. Anyways, I’m curious. Why did you help him?”

2002 sighed,

“I don’t know. I guess many things were going into my mind. When he almost got sucked away from the sewers, I felt this a soft second of desire to take the honey for my own being but...I just couldn’t do it. I was more into helping another Zim than helping just myself. I couldn’t just abandon him like that because...well, why should I? Why would I abandon someone who is just like me?”

“And is that the only reason?”

“That was the only reason. Soon after, I learned about him a bit more. He doesn’t seem to be as selfish and reckless as I thought. He’s very tough and brave for a baby and....”

He made a soft shrug.

“I just felt....like he was worth teaming up with. And it happened so fast cause I suddenly no longer felt afraid to go against my own selves. I started seeing my alternate selves just different people the same way I saw 2K. And I sometimes still wonder, if I made the right choice to take that action. And at the same time I sort of don’t? When I teamed up with 2K, it was something I never felt before. It felt...fun and amazing!” He suddenly let out a smile while clenching his fist, “like it was something I’ve been missing all this time and-“

His smile stopped when he hesitated. He rest his hand on his bowl, stressfully confused.

“Ugh, I don’t even know why I did it. It just came out of me.”

“I see...” the Elder said, “and let me ask you a question. Do you have a Dib?”

2002 paused by the question before softly narrowing,

“What are you talking about, of course I have a Dib. Even though I wish I didn’t-“

“Have you ever tried to find a way to kill him?”

“Kill him? No, but there have been times I tried to banish him to another planet or at least have his butt stuck to a chair for all eternity.”

“Did you destroy any invaders in Impending Doom 2?”

“No, but many of them got badly injured to the point where they needed to be at the medical base for three months. But I only injured them by accident because I thought few building were abandoned.”

“Then that makes sense as to why you act so selfless. You appear to not have much Zimness in you.”

“Zimness? What does that mean?”

“Here in the Zimvoid, the way how we define Zimness is someone who acts the closest to a ‘Real Zim’. It was actually adopted by Number 1 himself. According to him, a real Zim would never back down from anything. If a Zim wants to achieve his rank as a true invader, they are willing to risk it and by any means. What you have is nearly the opposite and you are not the first one I’ve seen. But as of so far, out of all that I have met, you are possibly the kindest and selfless Zim I ever encounter.”

“That’s absurd!” 2002 spoke out angrily, “a real invader would never be kind and selfless towards anyone!”

“Well obviously a real invader should show no feelings towards anyone,” the Elder shrugs as if it was obvious. “But anyhow, as unfortunate as it may seem, maybe it may come into good use. Think about it. In a world that we live in, there is no time to compete against one another. If we are going to take down Number 1 and find a way to escape the Zimvoid, we are going to have to work together.”

While he was saying this, small figure was walking down stairs, rubbing his eyes tiredly after have recently woken up. He starts to hear a conversation and turns to see who the Elder was talking to, his antennae raising in surprise to see the same Zim he was with yesterday listening to him.

“I don’t understand,” 2002 furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, “what do you mean by that?”

“Well you see,” the Elder replies, “where you are at right now is-“

“2002?”

The two stopped their conversation when they heard a voice of a child before they turned to see where it came from. The moment 2002 saw 2K standing by the staircase, he strangely felt a huge sense of relief that he looked completely fine. The fact that he still a felt a sense of concern towards his alternate self still amazes him. He was also a bit taken back that he was no longer randomly calling him different nicknames like he was suppose to. Maybe he ran out of ideas at this point? That or he has forgotten it.

“2K,” 2002 couldn’t help but smile a bit, “you’re ok.”

“Well Ofcourse I’m ok doofus,” the kid softly narrowed, “like I said. Zim is always ok!”

“Ah 2K, my fellow young Zim,” the old guy smiles, “you woke up earlier than expected. Shouldn’t you have rested a little longer?”

“I was curious to see if you actually brought him into the base. Besides,” he adjusted his goggle, “sleep is for the weak.”

“Very well,” the Elder nodded, “then why don’t you go ahead and sit with us? I was just about to explain your new friend here about the Re-!”

“Quiet!” The baby snapped quickly, “he’s not my friend!”

There was this urge that made 2002 want to follow this idea and cross his arms, attempting to look annoyed,

“Uh right, we don’t see each other as friends at all! Just....acquaintances.”

“Well less than acquaintances.” 2K replied.

“Yeah,” 2002 pointed out, “like he said.”

The Elderly blankly glanced at both of their reactions. After a short while, he chuckled,

“Oh yes right. I tend to forget that no Irkens should get along with anyone. But to continue, 2K, may you sit next to this Zim that isn’t your friend at all?”

2K accepted this by going down the stairs and sitting next to 2002, avoiding eye contact with him as much as he could. During this awkward silence, 2002 glanced at his teacup. His eyes traced his eyes at the child for a moment. Avoiding looking at him again, he handed it to him, to which apparently accepted it and started stirring it with his finger.

“Now then,” the old man wondered, “where was I? ...Oh yes!”

He looks back at the guest,

“Where you are right now is a base that is home to the Resistance.”

The name suddenly rung a bell.

“Resistance....Resistance. That’s right,” the fish Irken’s eyes lit up in interest, “2K and some thugs mentioned that name. It’s a group, right? It sounds more like some sort of rebellion.”

“Correct you are!” The Elder smile.

“But wait....would that mean....you’re the Elder?”

“Correct you are again! I am the leader of the Zim Resistance.”

“The leader...” 2002 murmured.

“Yeah isn’t that cool?!” 2K suddenly happily spoke up while looking at him, which made the whole “being careless about a guy he teamed up with” kind of pointless, “and not only that, he is one of very first Zims to enter the Zimvoid! Also being few of the Zims that survived at that time!”

2002’s eyes went huge in horror,

“There are Zims that actually died here?!”

“Nahhh,” 2K teased, “I just say that to make it sound cool.”

....2K stopped smiling,

“At least I hope no one died here.”

He felt a bit relieved by this. But he recalled the first thing 2K said, which made him look back at the Elder.

“Wait though. If 2K said about you being one of the first to enter the Zimvoid, you must at least know where this void came from. How did we start receiving the distress signal? Who’s responsible for this?”

“Well boy, I’m glad you asked such an answer...”

2002 waited, readying himself on knowing the world’s origin.

“....No one knows.”

“Huh?”

“No one knows,” he answered again, “that is something everybody is still trying to figure out.”

Oh....ok?” 2002 softly frowns, “and...how long has it been since you arrived here?”

“Let me calculate,” he pondered for a bit. “2K joined the Resistance a week ago....which marks the time when it has been...yes, I recall! It has been three months since I entered the Zimvoid.”

“Three months?” The guest was pretty astonished, “you’re telling me that this Number 1 has formed this entire system, along with you making this Resistance and growing a beard within three months?!”

“Heheh yes yes,” the Elder gazed out smiling, “it’s been that long now. Though in all honesty, it does feel like it all just happened yesterday....”

He looked back at 2002 and then said,

“Would you like me to tell you the tale of how this society came to be-?”

“Yes!” 2K chirped excitedly.

“2K,” the old Irken turned to the smeet, “I already told you this story when you arrived here.”

“I know,” he crossed his legs still smiling, “I just want to hear it again.”

“Very well then. And you?” The leader turns back to the other Zim.

2002 shrugged,

“If it can help me escape this place then...why not?”

The Elder nods. He goes ahead and clear his throat.

“It all started three months ago. Just like you two, I received a distress signal that was coming from Pandora Quadrangle. I went through the vortex, but ended up getting my ship destroyed by the Zapper, leaving me trapped in this world. Around that same time, I wasn’t all alone. More and more ships crashed unto the Zapper and crash landed around the same location as mine. The other first Zims came in different appearances. One that was taller than the others, another one being orange with a weird cat-like expression, the other having a darker skin tone. There was even one that had a shark head, though I’m not too sure as to what lead him to looking like that. But besides that, the only thing we found here during that time was the Zapper only. No castle, no underground city. Just a glowy device that was sitting on a lifeless asteroid planet.”

“We don’t fully know about what is the purpose to the Zapper besides destroying our ship and disabling half of our PAK’s functions. But what we do know is that it may be responsible for luring us into the Zimvoid. The big question to this day is who made it. After all, it couldn’t have just appeared into thin air. It appears to be Irken built, given the device looking familiar to our technology. But besides that, none of us can’t figure it out to this day. And it even got to the point where we focused more on finding a way to survive here.”

“Shortly after though, one of the first Zims rose up and promised great changes that will continue our greatness. Promises that were only lies in order to create a system where he can rule all. And he succeeded this by making us compete with one another. Having each of us race for the very top. And it is because of this that the system has yet to be broken. Luckily, I was first to notice Number 1’s lies and decided to become a reject. I stole a key and broke free from my collar,” he pulled down the turtleneck of his clothing to prove he has no collar, “and soon after, me and the others took shelter underground. And I, along with Meat, were able to build a home for the Resistance. That is the story of Zimvoid as of so far. Along with the origin of the Zim Resistance.”

“Wow....” 2002 murmured, “I don’t even know what to say. A Zim in the Zimvoid? Without a collar? You must have found some way in order to get a key from a guard or anyone from a much higher rank.”

“Yes,” the Elder smiled in pride, “that is what makes me the best.”

“How were you able to do that?”

“It wasn’t easy, that was for sure. But to continue, I formed this Resistance so we can find a way to take down Number 1’s reign as leader. We can’t just be spending all our time following his lies just so we can rot away and let our Dibs claim victory. If we’re ever going to find our way out of the Zimvoid, every single one of us must band together and use our brilliant minds.”

“Yeah!” 2K chirped again and turned to 2002, “see? I told you the Elder had the same ideal as you!”

“Well I’m just glad I’m not the only one who thinks the same way,” 2002 responded. “For a moment I thought my entire alternate selves are complete idiots.”

“That we’re what?” 2K narrowed.

“There’s another thing I’m curious to know,” the hybrid ignored the smeet and turned back to the Elder, “how many Resistance members are there right now?”

“As of right now,” the leader answered, “there are only three of us. Me, the Meat, and 2K.”

“What?” 2002 was taken back in disbelief, “I thought you said there were people with you when you started settling underground!”

“Indeed there were. But most of them were more interested in getting away with the restrictions of the society rather than fight against it. After all, with how powerful the higher ranks are, they don’t want to go risking their lives over something they believe they can’t win.”

“Are they crazy?!” 2002 said in anger, “do they they think that they have been sheltering under a rock their whole life? We are invaders! And not just invaders, we are Invader Zim! The greatest invader the Irken Empire has ever seen! We spent who knows how long on our Urth in order to fully conquer it!

“We don’t give in to anything! Isn’t our job as invaders is to fight with everything we got? Even if it might risk our life?!”

The Elder blinked, impressed by his words.

“Young one. If only it was this simple to say this in front of everyone trapped here. But it appears the system has made them stop fully believing on what they once were. We can no longer go by our name “Zim”. For “Zim” has become nothing more than acting like a different kind of race. It is because of this that we have been forced to adopt by our new names. Many have even, at this point, already started to give in from ever going back home. They just started to adjust to the new life here instead.”

“But that is not true. There is a way to get back to our old lives. That is why we need to convince them, or prove to them, that we got what it takes to take down this society. And maybe...you two can be the ones who can do it.”

“Huh?” 2K said in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” 2002 asked again.

“I have seen how each of you show bravery, loyalty, and confidence that is needed in order to fully form the Resistance. When this Fish Zim here told me the entire story of your teamwork yesterday, I was impressed. We need teamwork’s like this here in our group.”

The Elder traced his eyes to the older one,

“Especially to someone who also knows the true meaning of being a Zim. Young one, I’m here to make a request to you. Will you like to join the Resistance and partner up with 2K?”

2002 paused for a short while.

“I...I don’t understand.”

“You see, I have been planning on giving 2K a partner since yesterday. He has great confidence and bravery. But he needs someone that can back him up. Someone who would let him know the dangers that can be up ahead. Maybe there is something he can teach you in return. After all, you two seem to get along quite well, you know, despite not being “friends”. And that’s saying a lot in a place where everybody prefer to look after themselves.”

The Elder looked at the smeet.

“2K, would you finally be interested in it?”

2002 turned his head to look at the smaller one. His big round eyes shows to be furrowing, contemplating about it. His eyes traced down at the ground and shrugs.

“Hard to say. I still believe I can be useful here by relying on my own skills. And I don’t think it’s mainly because I need someone to back me up. It’s complicated.”

“So does that mean you accept?” The Elder asked again.

The smeet just shrugged again,

“Eh. Maybe? At this point I don’t really care either way. But if this ‘partner’ of mine keeps yanking on my antennae, then I’ll reconsider.”

“Good. And you?” He now turns to 2002, “will you accept this offer?”

At that moment, the fish Irken froze. He sat like that for few seconds and then turned to 2K. Surprisingly, the smeet was now gazing at him in curiosity. He wondered what the little guy was thinking. Was he curious on what his answer might be? Does he really want him to accept?His heart raced anxiously. One part of him felt the urge to accept it since he really starting to feel pretty bonded by this child. He can’t imagine what might happen to him in the future if he doesn’t accept this. What dangers he might run right into.

Dangers he might run into...dangers he might...

At that moment, the image of Gir swept into his mind. Gir. He forgot about him. Such an idiot! what is he doing? He almost forgot his previous plan! He was going to eat food so he can have enough energy to find his robot and find the materials needed to build his ship and leave the Zimvoid. But given a day has passed, he was running out of time. His robot shouldn’t be out alone this long. With him remembering what he was suppose to do, the he felt anxiety by the offer he was just given. He wanted to to work with 2K and help him get out of this place too. But...

“I....I-I can’t,” he frown.

2K’s antennae lowered a bit, but his expression barely changed. Possibly because he didn’t expect him to reject it, but was confused as to why.

“You can’t?” The Elder blinked in a bit of surprise.

“No. I can’t,” he stood up, “I’m sorry. But my Gir is still out there. I can’t just accept this when I’m still aware he can be doing something idiotic. I got to go.”

He starts to quickly walk towards the exit. They watch him go. The Elder gazed for a short while and then turned to the baby Zim.

“Did you knew this?”

2K glanced at the leader with a soft frown, and then glancing down.

“Um. Yeah, he was going on about it in the sewer.”

2002’s walking slowed as he was overhearing this conversation.

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

2k sat there quiet for two seconds and rubbed the back his head,

“Uh. I didn’t know how to say it.”

2002 finally halted by the exit. He looked back at 2K.

“Say what?”

2K notices that the Elder was glancing at him again. He made a head dip, to which the smeet understood what that head gesture meant. 2K closed his eyes and sighed,

“Why do I have to be put in this situation?”

He completely looks back at 2002. He takes a deep breath.

“When we made an entry to the Zimvoid and got hit by the Zapper, our Girs got hit by its electricity, causing them to get fully fried up to the point of their destruction. Either they would get burned or blown up. But the fate would be exactly the same.”

The Irken hybrid stood their silently. It took him a moment to process.

“So you’re saying that my Gir might have...”

2K’s eyes furrowed,

“Didn’t you witness it? Did the same happen to you?”

The moment he asked him this, the memory of his robot having the electricity rush through his body and exploding rushed into his brain. He nearly lost balance as if a huge wave swept through his body. He felt like his body was hot and cold at the same time, his mind fighting back the painful image the best he could.

That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen. No. It was just a dream I had. It didn’t happen.

“Woah hey there,” the smeet put his teacup down and halted him, “no need to force it down your throat too hard. I-I mean I know it’s bad. But...look at the bright side,” he tried to smile, “at least our Girs don't need to keep screaming their heads off 24/7-“

“SHUT UP!”

2K flinched, causing his body to grow stiff. The child noticed at this point how angry he looked all of a sudden. 2002 apparently tries to cool himself down, but remained glaring at him.

“You don’t know that. None of you know that. I know I’m not suppose to care about my Gir like all of you are doing, but I’m different from all of you!”

The two remained quiet. At this point, 2002 didn’t even want to bother spending his time getting angry, feeling that maybe he might have gone a bit too far.

“I’m sorry. Thank you for everything. But I have to go.”

With that, he rushes out of the base. The two gazed out to where he once was. The smeet can finally feel himself unfreeze and process everything that happened. And knowing that what he said wasn’t the best choice of words, he letting out a frustrated growl.

“Dookie...”

He stood up and starts rushing for the door.

“Where are you going?” The Elder asked him, “you can’t go all the way to where he’s heading.”

2K halted near the door. He looks back at him. The Elder reads the look on his face and he sighs.

“Alright. Do what you think is right.”

2K nods. He looks to where 2002 is heading and rushes out the door.

——————————————————————

2002 can be seen racing out of the cave that leads to the underground city, emerging out to the surface. His eyes target to the tall glowing green tower that the everyone said Is called the Zapper. A communicator stuck out of his PAK, facing him.

“Gir! Come in Gir! Can you hear me now!”

But instead of hearing his robotic servant, he instead heard static sounds as usual. He made a frustrated sigh and look out.

“Maybe if I get closer,” he softly told himself and continued running to the destination.

Meanwhile, 2K emerged from the cave and stopped for a moment to catch his breath. When doing so, he looked out to see the fish hybrid continue running off. He straightened up,

“Hey! 2002! Wait up!”

Of course, he’s aware that he doesn’t like to be called by that. But what can be better than calling him by his appearance? Doesn’t matter right now. He went ahead and kept on catching up to him. Despite 2002 hearing 2K by the distance, he ignored him.

This Zim is insane, he thought, the whole Zims are insane. This whole world is insane. I am NOT going to stick around with these fake mes forever. I am going to find Gir, fix my ship, and go home!

Five minutes into his running he starts getting near his destination. He uses the communicator again.

“Gir! Can you hear me now!”

“Wait!” 2K kept trying to catch up to him, “it’s better you don’t go back there!”

“Silence!” He angrily shouted back, “you don’t tell Zim what to do!”

“Well you don’t tell Zim what to do either!” He narrowed but it softened, “just trust me on this! You don’t want to go that way-!”

“Gir!” He talked to the communicator again, “stop lounging and fix the ship already! Hurry!”

2K was starting to loose track of him. He growled,

“Newcomers...”

2002 finally got up to the top of the junk piles and slowed his running, gasping for water. Once he was able to, he looked back down at the communicator,

“I swear,” he narrowed in exhaustion, “if you don’t pick up I....will...”

His words halted the moment his eyes traced off to meet something nearby him. On one of the piles laid an arm that looked exactly like Gir’s. In hesitation, he walked over there and softly halted before it. He picked it up and let it rest on both of his hands, letting himself analyze it. For certain it was an arm of a SIR unit, looking to have been completely blown off and fried.

He stared at it for a short while. Then looked out to see that out there around the crash site were tons of body parts of a SIR unit. There were just way too many to belong to just one robot. If that is the case...

2K caught up nearby and held on with his knees, panting heavily.

“Yeesh,” he said and looked up to him in irritation, “you’re nearly worse than me-“

His irritation soften when he noticed how stiff the other Zim’s body looked. He also seems to be holding a robotic arm as he was looking out at something. He appears to start being aware on what he might be looking at. The smeet’s body straightened and he casually walked over next to him and glancing at him for a moment. He then looked out to what he was seeing.

They both quietly stared out for maybe several seconds. The smeet finally spoke out,

“I told you that you would regret coming here.”

2002 looked about.

“...What happened to them?”

“I told you already,” he softly shrugged, “When all the Zims, including me, entered this void, the Zapper fried them all to death.”

He made a pause before glancing back at him.

“You really don’t remember it?”

2002 silently stood. He finally let the memory fully flood back into his mind. The spasm his robot’s body made before he burst into pieces. The disbelief and horror he felt to the point that he didn’t realize the ship was plummeting to the ground. All these times, he was trying to wipe that memory from existence. And once he felt the memory become clear and real, he felt it flood across his body to the point where he nearly lost the will to stand, his chest growing heavy from the burden. The older Zim looked at 2K, still looking as though he couldn’t believe all of this. But after he didn’t say anything else, he can read that the baby was still waiting for answer. His eyebrows furrowed and look down.

“I do remember seeing my Gir blow up the moment my ship hit the Zapper and I shortly after lost consciousness. I just thought...that maybe I just imagined that sight.”

“Mmm. Makes sense,” the small one replied, still looking out at the area. 2002 then softly glanced back at him. Then reading his mind, he asked,

“Did you try finding your Gir when you got here?”

“Uh-Huh.”

“Were you able to find him?”

“...Yyyyyuup.”

“And...found him...?”

2K this time stayed quiet for a long while. But finally, he answered with a very soft nod. There was something about that response that made the other irken’s heart feel heavy with emotion, but he can’t seem to fully understand it, yet he refuse to take his eyes off the smeet.

“Doesn’t matter though,” the child spoke again as he sat down by the edge of the pile, “not like I cared for that piece of junk anyways.”

“Eh,” the older one softly shrugged, “me too.”

He walked over and sat next to him,

“Always getting my house dirty, screaming while I’m working, always blowing up my scheme, watching those...stupid Angry Starfish Show. And...screwing up...”

He fell silent. It was finally then that these heavy emotions were becoming too much to bear. 2K starts to hear him choke up, causing him to look back at him. He can see the look on his expression. A face that looked as if he was trying to fight in order to hide the tearful expression. His chest quivered due to his breath shuddering. He looked down at ground, hugging his knees and clutching them.

“I hated him so much.”

2K frowned more, gazing at him quietly for a long time. He softly glanced about to make sure no one was looking before looking back at him. He was very hesitant, but started to reach out his small hand out. There were moments where he wanted to pull his hand away, but he finally got the guts to rest his hand on the fish hybrid’s arm, given he was too small for his hand to reach up to his shoulder, rubbing and patting it in a comforting manner. 2002 shuddering breath soften by this comforting sensation and looked to see what the smeet was doing. He silently gazed in confusion.

“...What are you doing?”

2K flinched a bit.

“Uh. Nothing,” he quickly pulled away, “just thought of cheering you up. But just pretend that didn’t happen and if you tell anybody this-“

“No no!” He stopped him, “it’s fine, don’t worry. I guess if anything, I did started to feel a little better,” he warmly smiled a bit. “Thank you.”

2K hesitated a bit. Then he looked away, attempting to give a nonchalant expression.

“Pfft, nah. It was nothing. I only did it so you would stop acting like an idiotic baby.”

“Your a baby,” he teasingly smirked.

“I said it was nothing, now quiet before I try to yank one of your large shark teeth out!”

“You can’t even get through my bowl.”

“Shut it!”

2002’s soft laughter eased the heavy burden, sniffling a bit and feeling the instinct to rub his eyes despite knowing his bowl will just get in the way. He then sighs a bit, looking out at the Zapper’s location site, his smile having to wear away everytime he has to keep seeing tons of his alternate selves’ body parts scattered through the ground.

“...There really isn’t any way to get home, isn’t there. There isn’t any required materials nearby?”

2K shook his head,

“The guards always take whatever parts are still useful on the voot cruisers and use them for...well something. I won’t be surprised if Number 1 is ordering the guards to bring them so he can keep building his ‘conquered world’. Shouldn’t he be more concerned about continuing to conquering his own world? That Zim must be out of his mind.”

“....Yeah. It is strange,” 2002 murmured. 2K turned to notice that the fish Irken was still saddened. After few seconds of silence, the Irken hybrid lets himself bury beneath his arms and knees.

“What am I going to do?”

2K blinked but narrow.

“Well obviously you can’t give up. Like we said earlier!” 2002 watches the smeet stand up, “There has to be a way to get out of here! Number 1 is the Zim that was able to destroy his Dib and conquer his Urth, right? If he was able to solve that, then he should be solving on how to get us all out of here! Maybe he just doesn’t want to figure it out so he can keep ruling over this world!”

“But why?”

“I don’t know, but who even cares about it now,” he crossed his arms, “what matters is that we have to stop him. It’s just like you and the Elder said. If we’re going to find a way out of here, every single one of us need to band together!”

2002 thought of this. He gazed at the Zapper, it’s green light glowing brightly no matter how far it is. Bright enough to show all the ships that have crashed and been destroyed. Bright enough to show all the dead Girs lying about on the ground. Who would do something like this? Where did that Zapper come from? Why does the Zimvoid exist? It was a mystery that kept making everyone scratch their heads. But at this point, there was no longer a care of how it all began. Only how to escape. How to get back home. How to get back to the base so he can rebuild his Gir. And to continue his old life. He felt the weight grow a bit lighter.

“You’re right.”

2K gazed at him and then softly smiled. His eyes then traced to his collar, the light of the Zapper helping him see his number again:

**2|0|0|2**

It was a unique kind of number. Not exactly unique as his, of course. But it was kind of funny. Noticing it now, if he can just imagine....

2K suddenly blinked in realization. He snorted and made a hidden laughter. 2002 turned to notice him laughing, causing him to frown a bit in confusion.

“What’s so funny?”

“No no, it’s just something I noticed,” the smeet said and pointed at his number. “Your first and last digit. If you switch them, your number will be exactly the same.”

The older one looked down at his collar to notice this.

“Huh,” his fingers rested on the number digits, “I never actually thought of it that way.”

“Yeah!” 2K chirps out, “isn’t that neat? It would kind of make your number a....palindrome.”

It was that moment while he said this that it an idea clicked.

“Palindrome....hey!” He looks back at the other Zim, “wouldn't it be cool if I called you Palindrome?”

2002 looked at him blankly,

“Palindrome?”

“Yeah!” The smeet smiles, “I mean think about it! Your name will be based off a number just like me! It’s uncommon but unique! And sure, it may sound pretty long, but there can also be a shorter nickname for it that sounds cool too!”

2002 raised his eyebrow.

“What makes the shorter version sound cool?”

It was that moment that 2K made a long beat of a pause.

“Uh...well...” he started rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. 2002 waited for his answer. But soon after, he looked back at the fish Irken,

“I just also noticed that...if leave out the first three letters of that word...it means ‘Pal’.”

2002 sat still, his eyes looking a bit wider than it was before. He didn’t know why, but the answer to the second reason flooded his heart with warmth. 2K noticed the sudden change of his expression.

“But it has NOTHING to do with me seeing you as a friend! Just thought it might suit you better, that’s all. But hey, if you don’t like that name, I can still think of something else.”

2002 eyes traced down at the ground, thinking about it. He looked back at him.

“I kind of like it.” 

“Alright alright fine,” 2K said in a bit of annoyance for a short while. “Yeesh, you really are picky when it comes to names-Wait what?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged a bit, “I actually kind of like it. It’s much better than Sam, Merlin, and who knows what else you called me.”

He glances down again, letting that name go deep through his mind and chest again that causes him to warmly smile.

“Palindrome. I think I can stick to that one.”

2K looked at him and then soon after let out a huge smile.

“Well I’m glad you like it!” He chirped out again, “I told you that I am the best at giving names!”

“Did you ever say that?”

“Who knows, who cares, but hey! You were actually able to accept one of my name suggestions! That shows how incredible I really am!”

“I...don’t think it works that way.” 

“Well in my book, it does!” He narrows and presses his fists on his hips, “no more further questions on it!”

The fish Irken, who is now nicknamed by Palindrome, laughed a bit and playfully but carefully punched him by the shoulder,

“Hey, you know a lot about your timeline. No one else.”

2K laughed back and rubbed his own shoulder,

“Ow. Ok, well at least you understand the ways of my people. Much better than my Dib.”

“Heheh! You know one of these days, you should tell me what your Dib is like.”

“He’s not that interesting, really. All he does is tear everything up with his pathetically muscular body.”

“Ugh,” Palindrome rolled his eyes, “well at least you don’t have a Dib that has laser eye implants. Seriously, the moment he got them, he is just more annoying than ever. Not more difficult to handle of course.”

“Well obviously,” 2K stated and looks out, “sheesh. Dibs are stupid.”

“You can say that again,” he looks out to the Zapper again as well, his smile still softly showing. While doing so, he thought back to what the Elder offered him earlier. His smile softly faded.

“Hey 2K.”

“Yeah?”

“I was Uh...thinking about the offer the Elder gave me earlier. Do I still have the time to change my answer? About joining the Resistance and becoming your partner?”

2K shrugged,

“I never overheard him say anything about him saying afterwards that it was your final answer.”

“Ok, good. But before I decide to change my answer, let me ask you something,” he turns to the smeet, “do you really want to be my partner?”

The smaller one twiddled his feet,

“I said my answer earlier and honestly, that answer hasnt changed too much? I’m still hesitant on needing someone to back me up. But after how you have treated me since we first met. You don’t seem to babysit me around and look down upon me. Usually when I think of partnering with someone, it sounds more like someone trying to shield you most of the time. But the fact you trusted my strength back then when fighting those inferior Zims. I don’t think anyone has done that towards me before so...I don’t. Maybe it’s time I can give it a shot.”

He looks up at him,

“So if I need to make my answer basic, then yes.”

Palindrome smiles and nods.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to keep trusting your skills. And if I do end up acting protective, you have all the right to knock some sense into me. As long as your actions aren’t too ridiculously reckless.”

“Mmm, sounds fair enough. And we will stick together until we find a way back home. We will finally not see each other’s less superior faces ever again!”

“That’s right,” he nodded, “and you still owe me the sandwich.”

2K blinked, having almost forgotten the previous deal, but smile,

“Yes. I still owe you the sandwich.”

“So we have a deal?” Palindrome smiles more and lets his hand out.

“Yes!” 2K jumped and grasp the other Zim’s hand, “it’s a deal!”

The moment he grasped it, the fish Irken can once again feel the unexpected strength of the smeet’s grip. And it didn’t even feel as though this was maximum limit of it. Was he even strong enough to crush his hand? Sounds ridiculous, especially when he’s talking about a baby that might do this. But this little guy was already full of surprises. And by the confidential and determined face he was making as his eyes glued onto him during the handshake, he can already tell that there is still more unique things about him ready to be revealed.

Was he thinking the same thing towards him? Whether he is or not, he was ready to know more about the world. What strange journey will lie ahead for him. Or most likely, by the look at it, what journey will lie ahead for them. Whatever this emotion he’s feeling is, he can sense that the deal they just made opens up to a beginning of a story that he will be telling for a while.


	10. Issue 9

“I see,” the Elder said, looking at both 2K and Palindrome, “so you two haveboth accepted on becoming Resistance partners? Why that’s brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Why this calls for ceremony!”

“Ceremony?” Palindrome’s prideful smile fades off once he said this.

“Why yes,” the Elder happily states, “it’s not everyday we recruit a new member of the rebellion! Meat! Get the bong thingy here!”

“Bong thingy?” The fish Irken’s eyebrow raised in confusion.

Just as he said this, the Meat pushed in what appears to be kitchen pan. The Elder grabs his pipe cane and goes over to pick it up and then hitting it with the pipe, emitting a long gong-like sound.

“....Oh,” Palindrome said unamused, “a Chinese gong bell. But a kitchen version of it.”

“What’s ‘Chinese’?” 2K asked the older one.

“You never studied that part of Urth yet?”

“HERE THEE! HERE THEE!” The Elder hollered out.

“...When did the ceremony become all medieval?” Palindrome grew more confused.

“What’s ‘medieval’?” 2K asked.

“We are all gather here to celebrate a new brave and fierce soul into the Zim Resistance! This young Zim has ventured through all the journey to realize the hideous identity of this hierarchical society! And he stands here today to accept a great oath! Paulina!”

“Palindrome.”

“Do you swore by the great leader of the Resistance that you will remain loyal to this rebellion?”

Palindrome awkwardly paused there for a short bit.

“Uh...do I say ‘yes’ or ‘I do’?”

“Just go along with whatever,” the old Zim told him.

“Ah. Ok. Uh. Yes do?”

“Do you swore that you will be willing to protect the members of your group?”

“Yes do.”

“Do you swore that you are willing to take down Number 1...?”

“Yes d-“

“...Even if it means dying in a process?”

Palindrome went stiff.

“....Uh. Yeah, I don’t know if I can swear on that last p-“

“Excellent!” The Elder continues with a smile.

“Now then,” he picks up a teapot and pours it into a teacup beginning to hand it out, “you may now sip this cup of mud tea three times in order to seal your membership of the Resistance.”

The fish Irken made another paused and then looked at the Elder.

“Yyyeah. Actually, I can’t cause my bowl is in the way.”

There was then several seconds of silence.

.....The Elder pours the teacup on top of his head bowl, causing him to flinch and yelp as it trickled down unto his suit.

“There!” The Elder smiled, “you are now the official member of the Resistance! And so you must remain covered with mud tea as a sign of being a new recruit!”

Palindrome shuddered uncomfortably,

“Do I have to?”

“It’s part of tradition, my fellow Zim. You earned this title!”

“Part of tradition? This looks more like you made it up at the last second cause I can’t sip on anything!”

2K can no longer hold it in and snorted into laughter. Which that didn’t make thing any better for the new recruit. The Elder notice the smeet still present due to his laughter. Something clicked in him.

“Ah yes! Almost forgot.”

2K’s laughter was immediately interrupted by mud tea suddenly getting poured on him.

“GYAHH!” He shrieks and jumped off guard, “WHAT IS-WHA-?!?!”

“There!” The Elder happily said, “You are now officially Palindrome’s partner!”

2k took a moment to process what has just happened, his face showing a mixture of shock and discomfort. He sharply turned to face the Elder in anger.

“Hold on, you never told me there was a partnering ceremony! You just made this one up, didn’t you!”

“Hey,” he happily shrugged, “gotta make this first formation as special as possible. Anyhow, congratulations, you two! 2K, go ahead and change your clothing so you can get yourself cozy-“

“This is the ONLY clothing I have,” 2K growled.

“-and then go ahead and show Palindrome around the base. Feel free to answer any questions he have. Tomorrow morning, I’ll train you both.”

“We have training?” The duos both asked in huge confusion.

“You guys are still brand new to this system. And now that you are working together, things will start to get interesting. Any how, I’ll go ahead and keep meditating. Good luck!”

And for that, he walked away. The Meat hopped away as well to continue his guarding position. 2K and Palindrome silently stood there dumbfounded, the mud tea he poured on them dripping out of their clothing.

“.....Is he always this crazy?” The Fish Irken asked.

“When he’s in a good mood, yes,” 2K muttered. “But never that much in a great mood.”

—————————————————————-

2K tapped his foot with his arms crossed while pressing his back against the wall just softly due to his PAK being present, his clothing now dried up and waiting. Palindrome meanwhile made sure he wiped out all the mud left on his suit with a cloth. He wasn’t sure at that point if he should really be glad his body was dried off. There was this fish side of him that was willing to keep his scaly skin underneath moisturized every once in a while. He should at least be glad his suit is keeping his skin a bit moisturized in order to avoid painful rashes and blisters. Which is why he made his scuba diving suit very thick. He put the cloth away, leaving it a good place to dry, and walked back inside the main room to find 2K having waited for him, hearing the sound of him coming in.

The smeet turned,

“You done now?”

“Yeah,” he nodded,” I should be good now.”

“Great!” 2K smiled, “then let me tour you around the base!”

He marched on, giving off a prideful posture as if he’s very happy on taking the lead again. Not surprising for the baby version of himself honestly. Palindrome followed him over to one door on the left. 2K spoke out,

“This here is the Meat’s room! I use to share the same room with him, but the Meat made me sleep in another room soon after cause he said I can be too noisy while I sleep. Not like I care really. He can get annoying at times too.”

“Were you noisy because you talked a lot?”

“Nah! He just said I would move and make too much sounds in my sleep. Anywho,” he walks over to the door next to Meat’s bedroom, “This here is the Elder’s bedroom! He would usually like to call it the meditation room since he spends most of the time meditating!”

“Isn’t he mediating in there right now?” Palindrome asked.

“Yep! Though there will be moments that he gets so into the meditation that he doesn’t tend to get bothered by how loud I talk! So we don’t have to worry about that!”

A sound suddenly said within the room,

“That is unless you speak in a loud voice for a long time, my fellow Zim.”

“Gyeh!” 2K badly flinched and took notice.

—————————————————————————-

“And this here is my workshop!” 2K happily said once they made it upstairs and got to a big room where there is a desk with a lamp at the middle, along with tons of maps attached on the walls, all of them being very low to the point where they almost reach the floor.

“Woah..” Palindrome said in awe, “that is a lot of maps. Are they all maps of the Zimvoid?

“Uh-huh! Although most of the good maps are ones that show locations around the Wasteland. The maps for the rest of the Zimvoid however are just theories on what each of the locations are like. For example, the castle!”

He runs over to the stool in order to climb up on it in order to reach the height of the desk. He shuffled each maps on the table to find the specific one and pulls it out.

“Look,”2K points out while Palindrome walks next to him so he can have a look, “This is the castle, right?My theory is that each floors depends on a Zim’s rankings. So if that’s true, the lowest part of the castle could be where the newcomers are taken to in order to have their collars put on.”

He finger traced upwards,

“And then here, this is the place where the ranking of 2002-1000 work at. And above that, 1000-101. The floor above can be where the Elite Zims reside at. Possibly have the most delicious snacks or something. Though I would doubt that they really do have snacks with the world we’re living in. And there....”

His fingers finally traced up to the top of the castle,

“High high HIGH above it. That is where the ‘scarrrry’ Number 1 is at. Possibly looking out at the society he has created while licking his disgusting orbed eyes!”

“....Wow...” the hybrid murmured in amazement, “this looks as though you really thought out on your theories. But why would you think that Number 1 is in a room alone?”

“Eh I dunno,” the smeet shrugged, “I was thinking back to when I was spying on Dib human and how he use to watch this movie annually where theres this green furry creature that live high above the mountain alone with only a dog by his side as he watches a town from below.”

“Oh yeah,” he responded in an unamused tone, “that sappy movie. I still wonder where he even got that dog if he was always isolated from everyone.”

“Heck if I know. But yeah, that’s where I got that idea from. Alongside that, maybe he doesn’t like seeing the weaker versions of himself.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

2K nods and looks back on the map,

“You know, I always wanted to put this map higher above the wall. But it’s been well...difficult to say the least.”

“Can’t you just use the stool to help you?”

“But it would be cool if I could place it higher then that! I was thinking of having someone carry me while they stand on a stool!”

“Then why didn’t you ask the Elder if he can help you?”

“I did. But he said that he might hurt his back if he tried to do that. And as for the Meat....well you know why.”

“I see. Alright then, how about this? Why don’t I help you with the map?”

2K let out a sharp gasp, his eyes glistening in excitement to which was the first time he ever saw him like this,

“You can?!”

“Sure, why not?” Palindrome shrugged a bit and smiled.

“Yes YES! Carry me carry me! Carry me high enough where it feels like I’m looking down at my human slaves as they’re forced to kick each other’s feet!”

His Zimness kicked in him quite a lot there. He can’t be too surprised though. That smeet may have a bit more Zimness than himself.

“Well, you need to first tell me where you want to place your map at,” Palindrome crossed his arms.

“Oh right, yes! Um....” 2K softly glanced about the room, “let’s see. Eeny meeny mineey-THERE THERE THERE!!”

He jumps out of the stool and rushes over to a wall at the left side of a closed door.

“Come on, Palindrome! Get the tape and pick me up!”

“Where’s the tape?”

“By the left side of the desk. Now come on come on!”

“Alright Alright, be patient, Yeesh,” he looked about the desk until he found the tape before taking it and moving the stool over to where 2K was at. He let 2K take the tape before seeing him hopping in excitement.

“Hold still and don’t kick me,” he said before picking him up and stepping onto the stool. He raised 2K up as high as he could.

He watches the child wiggle his legs in excitement as he starts to tape the map the wall.

“Ooooo I wanted to to do this for a long time!”

“Didn’t you wait for this for at least a week?” Palindrome asked. But he of course didn’t answer back to him, making the fish Irken just wait for him to finish. Once he did, Palindrome stepped off the stool and placed him on the ground. 2K put the tape away and stepped back to proudly look at his drawn map. Palindrome also took a moment to gaze at it, realizing how he was right about it looking better at this height. He then turn to look at 2K’s reaction towards it, only to see the smeet was already happily staring at him. He was about to ask why he was doing so until he asked,

“Well? What do you think?”

“Oh, uh. Well,” he looks back at the map, “it actually looks really nice. You do seem to have a good sense of taste when it comes to decorating the base.”

“Well of course I’m great at decorating! Why wouldn’t I be?”

Palindrome made a perk of a teasing smile for a few seconds. He then turns to look at the door,

“So what’s behind that door?”

“Eh. Nothing toospecial. If anything, I would just call it the Walking Room?”

“Why is it called the walking ro-?“

“But over here,” 2K interrupted his question and walked over to the next door, “this is my bedroom! Though you can say it’s both of our rooms now.”

“There isn’t any extra bedroom?”

“No, there’s just three bedrooms in the base. But hey! You might like it was despite being messy.”

He jumped up to reach for the knob and turn it, making the door open. Palindrome peeked in to take a look inside. Just as 2K has said, the room was a bit messy. Basically blankets and maps lying about. He also noticed there were more taped maps, along with drawings covering most of the lower portion of the walls. There was one big window that let the light flood into the room in order to see better. With it, more glass shards can be seen dangling about the wall. The room may look chaotic, but he can’t help but feel a sense of awe of how creative it is.

“So this here is my bed,” 2K goes over to clumps of blankets on the floor and pats them, “or Atleast that’s what I call it. There really isn’t any mattresses in the Zimvoid. But hey!” He looks back, “there plenty more blankets here! You can just gather them and then clump them up in order to make a bed!”

2K then looked away and pondered,

“Then again, we have to figure out how to divide our room. Maybe can you can sleep on the left side of room while I sleep at the other. Sounds good to you, Palindrome?”

“I don’t really care,” he said, “just as long as you don’t take too much ownership of the room.”

“Great!” He chirped, “you know, I never really had a roommate before. Oh, except for that one time when I was a smeet-oh Wait I am smeet. but you get the idea, I use to share the same cell with Skoodge. Not sure if it also happened in you're timeline, but one time, Skoodge and I decided we would break out of the of the underground smeetery so we can have our good first taste of the surface.”

“And man was it awesome! I wish Skoodge could have seen it, but the surface was AWESOME! Had a wrecked society without me controlling it was boring, but it was still AWESOME! I would have traveled more about the city if those Irken guard doofuses didn’t catch and send me into the cell. I luckily wasn’t alone though! I had Skoodge as my roommate. But uh. He really didn’t want talk to me,” he energetic tone softened, making the other Zim notice, “he kind of got mad at me for leaving him behind, which I did not understand at that time why he was upset about that.”

“After all, Irkens are suppose to focus on themselves, right? So I couldn’t understand what was his deal. Then again, maybe I should have helped him? After all, he really was kind to me. Anyways, after we graduated, we didn’t really interact with each other again and that...kind of stinks. Given he was only Irken I can fully talk to.”

The room went awkwardly silent. Oddly enough, that last sentence made Palindrome softly frown. 2K however quickly shook out of that thought and looked back at him.

“Anyhow,” he smiled again, “I think it’ll be be interesting having a roommate again! Maybe we can chat up all night or play pillow fights! At least that’s what Dib human calls it. Can we fight using blanket instead of pillows? Is that even allowed?”

2K kept on rambling about. Making Palindrome realize just how much of a talker he really was. Does he always like to talk this much? Nevertheless, he decides to settle himself down and continue to listen.

“Eugh! Never mind that! Uh....” 2K pondered about it, “maybe we can explore the town in the middle of the night? Then again, the Elder might get mad at us.”

Palindrome shrugged, “I mean I don’t mind either way on what we can really do. As long as it doesn’t kill us. But also know that I would probably give out throughout the night.”

2K looks at him in disappointment,

“Mmph. But it will make things more boring.”

“You really don’t care about sleeping, do you?”

“Ofcourse not! Like I said, sleeping is for the weak. I would rather stay awake for the rest of eternity than fall asleep.”

“Then that would mean you would have to find food somewhere.”

“I know I know....” he crossed his arms and looked away in annoyance, “this world stinks.”

“Heh. Don’t we all agree?”

2K just stayed quiet except responding by giving out a pitiful expression. It was then that the fish Irken realized he had nothing else to talk about. He glanced about the room for moment, trying to think of a new topic for the two to talk about. He then remembered what 2K asked back then and looked back at him.

“So. I’m guessing in your timeline, you never studied on Chinese or Medieval before.”

“I was wondering about that. What do they even mean?”

“Basically traditional human stuff as far as I know. ‘Chinese’ is basically China, but it can come in different meanings that relate to that territory. Either by a person, a language, a tradition. As for ‘medieval’, I heard that it was a culture way back in time? Before they used cars, humans you to like riding on horses a lot and there was no electricity.”

“Huh....a time where technology didn’t exist for humans,” 2K pondered, “thought that all species have always relied on technology for an extremely long period of time.”

2K thought a bit more. He looks up at him.

“How do you know all this?”

Palindrome shrugged,

“I sort of had interest in the human’s history and culture for a short amount of time once I settled on my Urth. But after I turned into a fish, I kind of just lost interest in studying it and instead learn more about the Urth’s sea lives.”

“Interesting....”

There was another moment of quietness.

“....Can you tell me more on what medieval time was like back then?!”

“Well I just know the basics,” he smiled , “But I can tell you a bit of the time before that....”

——————————————————-

It was now night time. Palindrome must have told him at this point almost everything he has learned about the history of humans.

“So....let me get this straight,” 2K tilted his heads, “you’re telling me before humans became these disgusting monkey, they use to be even more disgusting when they were mice? And they just cowered underground until some meteor destroyed all the....the...”

“Dinosaurs.”

“Yeah! Like I was going to say! I mean yeesh! I thought the stupidest moment of the humans’ history was when they thought the planet was flat. But they can’t even fend off some mindless giants?!”

Something then clicked in his mind.

“Dinosaurs...hm,” he smiled in wonder, “I should put that in my scheme list. If I can revive dinosaurs, that will keep the dumb humans underground. The tallest would have to recognize

my brilliance!”

He paused again. He looks back at Palindrome.

“What made you want to study those kinds of stuff in your timeline?”

The hybrid shrug,

“Dunno. I guess after learning stuff like Christmas and Halloween, I got curious on how the humans made up such ridiculous holidays and I guess I just analyzed it from there.”

“Interesting,” 2K said, “if anything, I rather find studies of locations to be more interesting. I already tracked out the entire location of the city we’re settling in and that must have took like what? Few months to do that?”

Palindrome blinked,

“You must really love recording locations, do you?”

“Do I!” He happily said, “it makes no sense why my other selves don’t! Learning on each locations is just very intriguing! There are so many areas to explore that may hold values! Many areas that might hold secrets! If my Tallest were to send me to a planet for a mission, I would GLADLY do so! Which is why I’m perfectly fit to be an invader to begin with!”

Palindrome laughed,

“And I’m guessing you explored the entire planet already?”

2K made a pause and traced his eyes for a moment,

“Well...not exactly. As you know, I’m always busy as an invader. My prime goal right now is to conquer Urth. Not waste my time studying EVERY single locations of the planet. Seriously, do you know how many ages it might take? The Tallest will get to the planet before I get to explore every single one of them! Not to mention that I have to find a way in having pathetic Dib human get out of my sight in order to obtain my victory.”

“Eugh. Dib human. Ofcourse,” the hybrid rolled his eyes for a moment. His eyes then traces back to the smeet. “I’m curious though, what are you going to do once you conquer your Urth?”

“Well obviously I’m going to continue exploring the world as much as possible. Maybe make the entirety of my Zimtopia while I’m at it. It’s my world after all. And those humans need to see that, especially the Tallest. It would be great if they finally step down and let me be the Tallest but I don’t know, would be cool if I can just, you know, explore other planets. I’m sure Gir or Minimoose can watch over the planet while I’m away. But it wouldbe nice if they came too, but who else would watch.”

Palindrome blinked,

“I don’t blame you on that one.”

2K perked a smile and shrug,

“Eh. I guess I’ll figure something out.”

Palindrome stares at him for a short while and softly smiled, nodding. As soon as he did so, he notice there was something funny about 2K’s expression. It was unnatural, given he was smiling. But his eyes almost look as if it is frown-

“So what about you?” The smeet spoke again, “what will you do once you conquer Urth?”

The older one took a moment to move away the thought he had.

“Oh, me? Nothing too usual I guess. I’ll possibly just stay there and watch over my slaves. As much as it would be nice to explore about the planets too, I don’t wanna risk the chance of the humans making rebellious actions while I’m away. Not that I don’t trust my servants. Just think I’ll be much better analyzing them.”

2K quietly looked at him, Palindrome expected he would be in awe by his brilliant post-invading plan.

“....That’s it?” He asked in unamusement. “That’s boring. Seriously who would want to live the rest of the centuries just guarding your own conquered planet?”

Palindrome narrowed,

“It’s not boring! I at least get to see the pathetic humans build all the statues of me. Don’t you want a see that?”

“Well Ofcourse I will! But you don’t think it will get boring later on, right? I mean think about it. Spending the rest of your life watching some lower lives work all day. I still love world domination, but think about other things I can also finally do once the Tallest thinks I’m worthy!”

“I mean,” Palindrome softly frown, “I can see what I mean. But this is my timeline after all. I make my own rules. Just like you make yours.”

2K hesitated. He sighs,

“Yeah I guess,” he pouted.

The hybrid was quite surprise on how the smeet was actually able to listen him this fast. But he just decided to ignore this unexpected reaction and turned his eyes to notice something.

“Huh. Didn’t think it would get nighttime so fast.”

2K’s eyes went wide and his pouty expression vanished.

“Its what?!”

He looks out the window too.

“Shhhhooot! How long were we talking?! We gotta go to bed right away! You make the bed. Actually, no. You will be too slow. I’ll make the bed!”

As much as Palindrome wanted to argue that he can do it on his own, 2K already rushed over by the blankets and collected them in order to go to the other side of the bedroom and cluttering them.

He looks and ask the child in confusion,

“What’s the big rush?”

“Well DUH! Don’t you remember what the Elder said? The training is tomorrow morning!”

“Do you even know what this training is about?

“No idea. But we have to prepare ourself for whatever training it might be. And if we have time, we STILL need to give the honey Zim back his honey!”

“Do you even know where he is?”

“Hopefully he’s still living by one of the food stall.”

“Hopefully?”

“Some of the Zims move to other places either because they might have no longer afforded it or some bandits invaded it. Now do...whatever passes your time while I finish this!”

“Alright alright yeesh. But you do know I can make the bed myself.”

2K didn’t answer this time , only focusing on making the bed. The older Irken sigh in soft annoyance. At this point he shouldn’t be surprised that despite him being aware that he saved his life twice, he still gives a hard time about acting like he’s the most professional of the two. But he did not want to argue for whatever reason. Maybe he just lacked energy on him right now or he just didn’t want to heat up an argument to the point that they split up as partners within barely a day.

He needs this kid to help him get out of here just as much as he needs his help. He looked about the room and decided to walk over one of the walls, letting himself slide down on the ground. His bored eyes dazed up at the ceiling. Meanwhile, 2K made one last touches and brushes his hands soon after in pride.

“There! Should be spread out and cozy enough to sleep in! What do you think?”

He turns, only to see the hybrid boredly gazing at the ceiling.

He suddenly noticed the hybrid’s lips sucking in a bit and seeing quick movement going on within his cheeks. 2K stares blankly, which turns into an uncomfortable expression.

“Uh....what’s happening to your-?”

Palindrome puffed his cheek a bit and spurt a bubble out of his mouth, easily taking 2K a step back in disgust,

“YEEEUGH! WHAT WAS THAT?!”

Palindrome nonchalantly looked at him,

“What was what?”

“Th..THAT THING YOU JUST DID! WHERE IT LOOKED LIKE WORMS WERE INVADING WITHIN YOUR CHEEKS BEFORE BARFING OUT A CUBE SHAPED BUBBLE!”

“Hey relax, it’s no big deal, 2K. I’m just making bubbles of different shapes.”

“That’s impossible! You can’t just blow out random bubble shapes! It’s a disruption of logic!”

“In all honesty 2K,” Palindrome said with his eyes slanted, “logic is usually not necessary. People do it all the time.”

2K thought about it.

“Well you’re right about that.”

He made a short pause, and then continued,

“But it still doesn’t beat the question on how you are able to do that! What trickery do you have?!”

Palindrome couldn’t help but perk a smile, admiring the smeet’s curiosity,

“Well if you’re that curious, I’ll show you. Come.”

2K’s eyebrow raised in suspicion, but shortly after decided to walk over there. He sits close to him, his head raising to look, his curiosity now becoming visible on his face.

“Alright,” Palindrome started, “so what I do is that I try to picture what bubble I want it to form into. A triangle? A cube? A stick? Once I know what I want, I form air within my mouth and start ‘carving’ the air with my tongue. I also have to be cautious since my huge sharp teeth can get in a way.”

His lips sucked in again just as soon as his cheeks puffed a bit. The smeet notices his other self concentrating as he can see his tongue move about within his cheeks again.

Once he finishes, he spout out a bubble, revealing to be a triangle. 2K raised his antennae in a bit of awe as he watched the bubble press against the inside of his bowl and then popping.

“See?” The hybrid traced his eyes back to him, “once I finish doing that, I just spout the bubble out. Doing this usually helps me whenever I’m bored or I have something in mind. Either way, it does help me feel calm and entertained.”

2K blinked.

“Can I see it again?”

Palindrome’s fin ears raises up in surprise.

“You want to see it again?”

The child nods.

The fish Irken was stunned, never having anyone be interested in him just making bubble shapes. But he can see that 2K’s eyes showed a mix of interest and awe, almost like something a child would do. He wonders if he even notices his own reaction since it doesn’t seem too Zim-like.

“Oh. O-Ok, sure.”

He took a moment to think about what to make next. He starts “carving” the air within his mouth again and spouts out a bubble that forms the letter “Z”. 2K’s atennae raises up in awe again, this time trying to climb on him in order curiously place his hand at the surface of his head bowl multiple times. Palindrome was taken back at first, but didn’t move, watching the smeet stare at the bubble with a gleam of interest in his eyes until the bubble finallypressed unto the surface and popped. He continued watching 2K, who was zoned out by what he just saw until he blinked back into reality and looked back at him.

“You know, as disgusting as it may seem, I’m quite fascinated. How did you learn to do that?”

The underwater Irken shrugged,

“It’s just something I learned myself soon after I turned into a fish.”

“How long?”

Palindrome pondered.

“Mmmm. I kind of forgotten at this point how long it’s been since then. A while maybe? But this is the kind of skill that takes a while to get good at. Heck, there’s still some shapes I have yet to succeed at. I’m still improving as I go.”

“TEACH ME!” He suddenly chirped out with a huge smile, “TEACH ME SO I CAN BECOME BETTER THAN YOU!”

Palindrome traced his eyes back to him in confusion.

“Wouldn’t you get burned? The water I’m using is from Urth. And it’s not like I can give it away since I need it to live,” He pulls him away from his bowl and settles him down on his lap, “And besides, you don’t seem too professional when it comes to swimming.”

“Hmph!” The smeet crosses his arms in annoyance, “I can learn! I always learn things fast! And getting burnt by Urth’s acidic water doesn’t scare me!”

“But either way, you would have to go back to your Urth in order to train. You would also need to put glue on yourself, get yourself a scuba diving suit-“

“I’m not stupid!” He snapped and looked away, “I know how to organize a plan! Ugh! I wanna make my own bubble shape!”

“I mean...” Palindrome shrugged again, “if you like for the time being, you can ask me what bubble shape you what me to make.”

2K gasped and sharply look back at him with his eyes glistening again,

“I CAN?!”

“Sure,” he chuckled, “why not? Just tell me what you want me to make.”

“Ok ok! Uh. Let me think. Hmm.”

He lowered his head and softly tapped his buck tooth with his small finger. He thought about it a bit more before gasping in excitement.

“I KNOW!” He turns back and points to himself, “MAKE A BUBBLE THAT LOOKS LIKE ME!”

Palindrome’s smile fade,

“What?”

“Yes yes!” He lets his small body get bouncy, “I wanna see my glorious face be right inside of your bowl!”

“Ok, that’s actually creepy when you say it that way-“

“Come on come on come on! Make one! Please please please! For Zim!”

“Yes, but I have to warn you,” his eyebrows furrowed, “Theres a likely chance it won’t be successful. That is something you would have to be REALLY professional at.”

2K groans,

“Yes, I get it, fine! But just try! Try already! Try!”

“Ok ok! Yeesh!” He rolled his eyes, “makes me wonder why I have to always listen to your requests.”

Palindrome looks out and concentrates for a moment. He puffs his cheeks starts working very carefully. This was of course extremely difficult to do. Especially when he has to recognize the child’s face as a whole. So it took longer than usual, with the smeet excitedly waiting, his small but strong hands clutching at his suit so he can lift himself up and have a better look. He finishes and spouts the bubble out. However, 2K’s smile fades when only two natural bubbles came out instead. He watches until they pop.

“Aw,” he frowns.

“Thought so,” Palindrome said.

“Can you try again?” He asked him.

“2K. I doubt that I will be successful in just few or several attempts. Remember that it took me a while to master any of the bubble I just made. Lots of concentration to get every detail right. If I’m going to make a bubble of you, you are going to have to wait a little longer.”

2K stared at him in disbelief. He squeezes his eyes shut and trembles in anger. Palindrome at this point was already ready to be told off by a baby again. Whether he will tell him that he’s worthless or that he’s not trying hard enough, he was ready for whatever would come out of his mouth.

But the trembling subsided, the anger on his expression washed away into a sense of calmness before exhaling for a short while.

“Nah, don't worry about it.”

Palindrome tilted his head a bit,

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah yeah, it’s just a stupid bubble. I’m not gonna get worked up over it. Besides,” he yawns, “we might as well try to sleep.”

He watches as the younger Irken takes off his goggles, puts it down on the ground, and hops off his lap to go underneath the blanket, his small body disappearing as a result. Palindrome asked,

“Why do you sleep underneath the blanket?”

“It’s cozy, ok?” The child-like voice was heard within it, “now don't ask any further.”

“Uh. Right. Ok.”

The fish irken goes ahead and gets in his usual comfortable sleeping position by letting his back lean more again the wall, his hands resting on his stomach. He yawns and starts trying to close his eyes.

“Hey, Palindrome?” The smeet’s voice was heard again.

“Yeah?” He called out while trying to sleep.

“Do you uh...think you will be blowing bubbles again tomorrow night?”

“Depends. If I have nothing else to do, I will. Why? Do you want see it again?” Or

“....Maybe?”

Palindrome looked at the blanket. His heart felt warm with the fact that he really did like his bubbles. After all, the only one who ever liked these things were his Gir. He did not expect anyone else to ever take interest in them.

“Alright,” he softly smiled, “I can show you again tomorrow.”

He waited for 2K to respond, but he just remained quiet. He thought that at this point, he must have dozed off at that moment. With that being the case, Palindrome closed his eyes and sighed, feeling the slumber about to take over him.

“....Palindrome?” 2K’s voice was heard again, but this time in a softer and tired tone.

The hybrid was willing to stay up a bit longer to respond with,

“Yeah?”

It took a short while, given that the smeet might have hesitated.

“Goodnight.”

The older made a soft relaxed sigh,

“Goodnight, 2K.”

Moments after he said this, he feels himself grow heavier until he dozed off completely.

—————————————-

Kicks. Thrash. Shifts. Whimpers. Those were sounds that appeared in his dream. But he would soon realize that they weren’t coming from his dreams. He felt his body get a bit lighter for just a moment to realize it was coming from the room. Was 2K doing this? Does he always make noises in his sleep? Maybe that’s why the Meat kicked him out of his room. At this point, he was too tired to focus on why he makes noises in his sleep. He can barely get a shut eye again unless he stops making that noise. Darn, how long has he been making those noises for? He sighs in irritation while his eyes were still shut before tiredly calling out,

“2K, will you stop that and go to sleep already!”

There was a harsh fidgeting movement, a quick gasp, and the noises died out completely. He could have sworn heard the smeet shift about soon after, but that’s just about it. Maybe he was having some sort of wild dream that caused him to be so feisty. Maybe fighting bad guys or something. Either that or he was trying to train in the middle of the night. Whatever it was, him calling this out on him made him calm down. He wanted to check and see what it really was, but he was still too tired to even flicker open his eyes. He dozed off again, hoping he will remember to ask him about it tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while to post this chapter. I just got a new job and it’s possibly longer than my previous one. Not to mention I’ve been studying for my summer class. Buti should finish the next chapter as soon as I can! :3


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